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Photo courtesy of Jamaica Ponder

UPDATE: Princeton police investigating 'Jews vs. Nazis' beer pong game

PRINCETON -- A photo of Princeton High School students playing a drinking game that pits "Jews vs. Nazis" has surfaced on social media and caught the attention of the school district.

The photo depicts a version of "beer pong" called Holocaust Pong or Alcoholocaust, according to several websites that describe the game. Beer cups are arranged in a Star of David and swastika formation on each end of a table.

The "Jews" are allowed to "Anne Frank,'' or hide, one of their cups. The Nazis are allowed to "Auschwitz" their opponents, requiring one to sit out a round, websites say.

Princeton schools Superintendent Steve Cochrane said the district is talking to the students and their families about the photo and its raised several concerns.

"As an individual and as the superintendent of the Princeton Public Schools, I am deeply upset that some of our students chose to engage in a drinking game with clearly anti-Semitic overtones and to broadcast their behavior over social media," Cochrane said in a statement.

Cochrane said the photo illustrates several lessons. "Underage drinking is not a new problem; nor is the misuse of social media; nor are actions of bias or bigotry," he said. "They are not new problems, but they do not have to be ongoing ones."

The photo was shared on the social media platform SnapChat, where it was discovered by another student.

That student, Jamaica Ponder, wrote about it on her blog in a post that condemned the act. The post had been shared on Facebook over 1,000 times by Thursday afternoon.

"I know I'm not the only one who saw this Snapchat story," Ponder wrote. "Yet here I am, the only one saying anything about it. I am unsure as to what's worse: the static silence from my peers, or the fact that this happened in the first place."

Ponder, a 17-year-old junior at Princeton High School, did not name the students in the post, but identified them as classmates in an interview Thursday with NJ Advance Media.

"They are athletes and student leaders," Ponder said. "They're prominent individuals that everybody knows, captains of sports teams."

Ponder said she recognized the basement room the photo was taken in as one just blocks from her own Princeton house.

"This isn't surprising necessarily," Ponder said. "I"m not astounded at who's in the picture.''

Ponder said she contacted her school guidance counselor before she posted the picture on her blog, as a courtesy to the administration.

Since then, she has met with several school administrators about the photo, including the school Principal, Gary Snyder.

Ponder said the had been some unpleasant reaction to her post at school Thursday, but most of the response was positive.

"A couple of people came up to me using profanities, but a lot of people were very kind and I'd say appreciative of what I did,'' Ponder said. "Someone needed to show what exactly is going on when no one's paying attention.''

Cochrane said the photo has the district's attention.

"As a community we all have a role in teaching our children to make good decisions, to be legally responsible, and to be respectful members of a diverse society," he said.

"An incident such as this one, forces us to take a hard look at our efforts in educating our children in the values that may be most important to their success in life. "

Keith Brown may be reached at kbrown@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBrownTrenton. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.