This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The exclusive Dallas boys’ prep school that the white nationalist leader Richard B Spencer attended is denouncing his activities and ideas.

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David Dini, the headmaster of St Mark’s School of Texas, issued a statement of criticism after a 19 November rally in Washington at which Spencer, a member of St Mark’s class of 1997, shouted “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” as supporters raised their arms in Nazi salutes.

Without referring to Spencer by name, Dini said his activities had “been deeply troubling and terribly upsetting to our whole school community”.

“We reject racism and bigotry in all its forms and expressions,” he added.

In his statement, posted on the school’s Facebook page, Dini hailed other St Mark’s alumni for “expressing their outrage and disgust” toward the National Policy Institute, which Spencer leads, and the ideas the group promotes.

Spencer’s classmates have raised about $40,000 in a fundraising campaign to settle refugees in Dallas. One of those classmates is Ben Kusin, a former Shark Tank contestant and chief executive of a company that makes deodorizing wipes.



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“This issue hits deep – not just for me but for everyone,” he told WFAA-TV of Dallas-Fort Worth, adding about the rally: “When you see something like this, you have to say something.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group watchdog, describes Spencer as “one of the country’s most successful young white nationalist leaders – a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old”.

Kusin said: “He wants to expel all these non-white Europeans from this country ... Our countermeasure was supporting refugees coming into this country.”

An email message to Spencer drew no response on Sunday.

Other alumni of the St Mark’s School of Texas include the folklorist/musicologist Alan Lomax, the rock stars Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, the actors Tommy Lee Jones and Luke and Owen Wilson, and the investigative journalist Kurt Eichenwald.