Update: Anti-Defamation League issues statement on Hanover schools swastika T-shirt logo | Education

The superintendent of Hanover schools is apologizing about the district using a logo on T-shirts and other materials that resemble a swastika.

The logo was used in a Hanover County Public Schools professional learning conference this week.

“One of our teachers designed the logo intending for it to represent four hands and arms grasping together — a symbol of unity for our all-county professional learning conference. Nothing more,” Superintendent Michael Gill wrote in a message to families and staff.

“While we are confident that the logo was created without any ill-intent, we understand that this has deeply upset members of our staff and community who see the logo as resembling a swastika.”

Gill said the administration has stopped distributing the T-shirts that include the logo and staff are working to remove the logo from all conference materials.

“We are deeply sorry for this mistake and for the emotions that the logo has evoked by its semblance to a swastika and, by extension, to the atrocities that were committed under its banner,” Gill wrote.

“Unquestionably, we condemn anything associated with the Nazi regime in the strongest manner possible.”

Gill was not part of developing or reviewing the logo, according to district spokesperson Chris Whitley.

Moving forward, the administration will reevaluate the process by which logos are reviewed, Whitley said.

In a letter on Monday afternoon, the NAACP said that the incident is another example of the urgent need for required training and professional development in diversity, equity and inclusion for all HCPS employees, including the School Board and Board of Supervisors.

“We stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in calling out this insensitivity,” said the letter signed by Hanover NAACP President Patricia Hunter-Jordan. “We appreciate and respect Superintendent Gill’s apology. However, mere oversight by one individual cannot explain this pattern of a lack of diversity, and the refusal to make substantive changes that would result in the new direction for our schools…”

Last week, the NAACP wrote a letter urging the Hanover Board of Supervisors to “reconsider” some School Board appointments and to require both boards to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion training.

Newly appointed School Board member Johnny Redd, who was criticized in the letter in part for previous comments about using a biblical worldview to analyze policies, responded by referring to Hunter-Jordan as an “angry African American lady.” I later apologized.

The Anti-Defamation League’s regional office in Washington said in a statement to the Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that the ADL appreciates Gill’s swift response to the community and his acknowledgment of the impact the incident has on the Jewish community and other marginalized groups targeted by white supremacy and hate.

“We were deeply disturbed when we saw the image, and with antisemitic incidents continuing to reach historic highs across the country and the Commonwealth, it was upsetting for many of our community members to see this symbol — which so closely resembles a swastika — being used for a conference for educators,” the Washington ADL statement said in part.

According to an annual ADL audit, there were 46 antisemetic incidents reported in Virginia last year, a 6% decrease from the 49 incidents reported in 2020 and a 64% increase from the 28 incidents reported in 2019.

Virginia was the state with the 15th-highest number of antisemitic incidents reported in the US last year, according to the ADL.