Catholic school girls who posed with Swastika beer pong cups want forgiveness

In a letter to their school. St. Teresa’s Academy students who posed with beer pong cups arranged as a swastika now apologize for their “terrible actions.”

“The symbol was mistakenly and ignorantly formed with no racist intent,” the letter states. “We could not be more remorseful knowing we unintentionally hurt many.”

Party pics circulated on the social media app Snapchat and sent to The Star last week, depict a group of girls posing in front of a table with beer pong cups arranged in the shape of a a left-facing swastika, an inversion of the right-facing swastika appropriated by the Nazis.

After the incident was reported by the news media more than a dozen alumnae, parents and current students contacted The Star to express outrage over what they said was the lenient way the school had handled the incident. They called for the girls to be expelled.

St. Teresa’s Academy, an all-girls,Kansas City parochial school, did not say how it disciplined the group of students. It did say the school had conducted an internal investigation and concluded that students had been drinking underage, and they were disciplined.

Last week, school president Nan Bone, in a message on St. Teresa’s Facebook page, said expulsion was not the appropriate punishment.

On Monday, Bone said she received the letter signed by all nine of the students, “but because this letter will probably go viral, I have deleted the names of the girls. Each of these students are minors.”

In their letter, the girls said, “To reconcile our actions we plan on doing service to those affected by the hatred this symbol stands for.”

They wrote that their apologies toward their fellow students, faculty and anybody else affected “are sincere.”

“The thought of anyone feeling unsafe, uncomfortable or unwelcome because of our incredibly inconsiderate actions is sickening to us,” the letter stated.

“We want to remember and learn from this mistake moving forward. We hope the girls that brought this to the attention of the school community know that we respect them and harbor no ill feelings.

“We are asking for your forgiveness knowing it will take time to earn back your respect. It will be at the forefront of everything we do moving forward.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 10:50 AM with the headline "Catholic school girls who posed with Swastika beer pong cups want forgiveness."