West Virginia gives Nazi-saluting prison officers the (jack)boot

Groupthink can seriously harm your career.

You would have thought there might have been one sane fellow among the dozens of West Virginia Corrections Academy trainees who, as they posed for a photo giving cheerful Nazi salutes, dared to voice his misgivings and dissuade the collective.

“Hang on guys, I’m not sure this is a good idea. Timeout before we take the pic!”

But apparently not. It just seemed such a funny thing to do at the time.

The wannabe prison guards raised their hands and shouted “Hail Byrd!” – a reference to the trainees’ instructor, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Well, after the picture surfaced earlier this month, justice was swift. In fact, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice this week approved the termination of all employees involved in the photo.

The image, released publicly a few days ago by the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, showed more than 30 trainees from Basic Training Class 18 with their arms raised in a salute.

Before the image was released, Jeff Sandy, the agency’s secretary, had written a memo in which he derided the image as “distasteful, hurtful, disturbing, highly insensitive, and completely inappropriate.”

He said the image “betrays the professionalism I have seen time and time again displayed and practiced by our brave correctional employees.”

After the photo was made public, two training instructors and one cadet were fired, while 34 other employees, including the trainees in the photo, were suspended without pay.

Now, at the recommendation of Sandy, Gov. Justice has approved all trainees who participated in the Nazi-like salute be fired.

Justice also approved the termination of an Academy staff member who did not report the photo, and the suspension without pay of four instructors who had reportedly seen the photo but did not report its content.  

“As I said from the beginning, I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice wrote in a statement released by his office. “I also said that this act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of State government.”