At least five Boulder Valley high school students have been expelled in the wake of the suicide last month of a student who led a Nazi-themed group chat on Facebook that advocated killing African-Americans and Jews.

Boulder police say about 15 students at multiple area schools participated in what the teens called the “4th Reich’s Official Group Chat,” according to a report released Tuesday.

Police were alerted to the group following the Sept. 21 death of a Boulder Preparatory charter school student who had taken his own life “to show his allegiance to the Nazi party and the killing of Jewish people,” according to the report — which did not identify the juvenile.

Along with Boulder Prep, the members of the Facebook chat attended Boulder High, Centaurus High in Lafayette, Monarch High in Louisville, Pomona High in Arvada and Colorado Mountain College.

The chat group’s “4th Reich” title was a reference to a hypothetical successor to Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich in Nazi Germany. The leader of the chat identified himself as “The Fuhrer,” and others adopted various military titles used by Hitler’s SS paramilitary forces.

The members talked about “killing all Jews and “n******,” according to the police report, and posted images of guns, referenced “the final solution” and “white power,” and were told they needed to recruit other students “so they can complete their ‘mission.'”

One wrote: “You can hang Jews on trees, shoot them right in the knees. Gas as many as you please,” according to the police report.

After investigating, Boulder police declined to press charge against any of the students involved because there was “no evidence or documentation to support there being any credible threat,” according to the police report.

Boulder Valley spokesman Briggs Gamblin said the district also investigated the social media comments and took “appropriate responsive action” with the students involved.

The district cannot provide specifics about disciplinary action because of federal privacy laws, he said.

According to the police report, the five students involved who attended Boulder Prep were expelled from the school. It’s not known whether students at other schools faced expulsion.

Lili Adeli, headmaster at Boulder Prep, said the Gunbarrel school addressed both the suicide and the Facebook chat’s discriminatory language.

“We did a lot of work with the students to help ensure their safety and mental health and healing,” she said. “It can bring up their own thoughts of suicide and previous trauma.”

That work included checking with students through phone calls and text messages outside of school hours to make sure they were safe, she said.

“We’ve continued to keep the lines of communication open,” she said.

Adeli said school staff members also have made it a top priority to educate students on inclusiveness and the importance of speaking out against derogatory language.

The chat group was reported by a parent of a Boulder Prep student. When the group’s “second-in-command” was contacted by police, according to the report, the student said “the whole thing was ‘funny’ and he would not actually ever do any of those things.”

The Anti-Defamation League also received a complaint about the group, regional director Scott Levin said.

“From our perspective, we believe law enforcement and the school district are both taking appropriate action,” he said.

Still, “it’s very disheartening when you hear this type of thing is taking place,” Levin said, noting that seven Boulder Valley schools use the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” program.

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa