What Do We Think About This?

[BoSoxGal]

(CNN)All of the West Virginia correctional cadets seen apparently giving a Nazi salute will be fired, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced.

The image, discovered in early December, shows the members of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class 18 with one arm raised. The text above reads "HAIL BYRD!" in a reference to a training instructor for the class, according to the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

The governor condemned the training group's behavior in a statement on Monday.

"We have a lot of good people in the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety," Justice said. "But this incident was completely unacceptable. Now, we must continue to move forward and work diligently to make sure nothing like this happens ever again."

Three staff members at the training academy will also be fired. Four other instructors who failed to report the photograph will be suspended without pay, he said.

The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety released the image, with the faces of the trainees and employees blurred, earlier in December. A number of employees were suspended amid an investigation into why the group picture was taken.

Jeff Sandy, cabinet secretary for the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, recommended the cadets' firing to Justice.

He noted in his letter to the governor that some of the cadets "were aware of the connotations associated with the gesture, that they were uncomfortable with the practice ... and/or that they only followed what they perceived to be an order" because they feared they wouldn't graduate.

"Nonetheless," Sandy wrote, "their conduct, without question, has also resulted in the far-reaching and harmful perceptions that are the antithesis of the values we strain to attain."

Does this mass firing serve the greater good?

[ex-khobar Andy]

Yes - not sure. Obviously dumb; but they were ordered to do so by their trainer. These guys were being trained to be corrections officers so I am guessing that these are not all law school or history graduates. It sounds like one of those things which could be forgivable.

[RayThom]

Here's a photo of the motley crew at play.

Most of them look like they barely made it out of high school. Regardless, I think all kids, by the time they reach their age of majority, knows what a Nazi salute indicates. I can't help but feel it was a white supremacist move, even though one of the fired officers is black.

Their next job -- "Do you want fries with that?"

[BoSoxGal]

West Virginia is a hard place to make a decent living. Obviously we want corrections officers who are compassionate human beings to some degree, but I don’t think this incident is prima facie evidence they’re all irredeemable by any means. The instructor, who enthusiastically compared herself to Hitler and taught cultural sensitivity (!!) definitely needed firing, no question. But these young recruits who are all probably desperate for a good steady job with benefits? I don’t think so.

This is a failing of judgment at the highest levels by administrators too gutless to manage anything with nuance. They should have investigated the recruits and dismissed only anybody with actual links to white supremacy. Otherwise they’re a bunch of students made to follow an order by an instructor with the power to pass or fail them. It’s shameful that the senior people who didn’t report this got a wrist slap and the newbies who did as told by senior people are getting the can - something that will likely have a very profound impact on them and their dependents.