A Los Altos High School Instagram account titled “Los Altos Nazi Party” posted a Nazi propaganda poster with a caption reading “We meet on Tuesday next week in the quad,” on Feb. 12. Their profile picture was a swastika layered on top of the school’s logo.

The Los Altos Police Department is conducting an ongoing investigation into the account owner. If you have information about the account, Los Altos High principal Tracey Runeare said to email her at tracey.runeare@mvla.net.

“There is no place for this type of hate speech in our schools, and there is no tolerance for this type of activity on our campuses,” Mountain View Los Altos Superintendent Eric Volta said in an email to the MVLA community.

Los Altos High senior Ben Samek, who is Jewish and a member of the school’s Jewish culture club, found the account troubling, but not completely surprising. He’s seen drawings of swastikas in the men’s bathrooms and said there’s a likelihood of extreme ideas at big schools like Los Altos High.

“It’s a little odd to me that Instagram even allowed that account to be made [in the first place],” Samek said.

When he was making an Instagram account for the school’s Israeli culture club, Instagram censored the account name and he had to petition Instagram for it to be accepted.

Since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, there have been many antisemitic acts on MVLA and Los Altos School District campuses. Swastikas were graffitied on Mountain View High School’s campus in Sept. 2024.

At Blach Intermediate School, swastikas were also graffitied on multiple gym lockers, including one belonging to a Jewish student in Dec. 2023. Two Jewish students at Egan Junior High were targeted with an antisemitic remark and gesture in Dec. 2023.