"Beat the Jew": Anti-Semitic Road Race Game Could be Road to Trouble for SoCal Students

LA QUINTA, Calif. (CBS/AP) The game was called "Beat the Jew" - and according to officials with a school district in Southern California, administrators are considering how to punish up to 40 students who were playing it.

The Desert Sands Unified School District in Riverside County says that's how many students joined a Facebook page promoting the game, in which some played the role of Nazis in cars, chasing others playing as blindfolded Jews, on foot.

The page has since been taken down, according to The Desert Sun newspaper, whose initial report said students were not reprimanded because the game did not happen at school.

"There was no threat; there was no crime," Superintendent Sharon McGehee told the paper. "They just played a game that had an ugly, insensitive stupid name."  Many students said they didn't know the name of the game when they played or didn't think about the insensitive nature of it and have since apologized, McGehee said.

The district began investigating last week after students at La Quinta High School reported the game to administrators.

Sherry Johnston, assistant superintendent of personnel, says seven students who played the game in the campus parking lot could in fact be suspended or barred from graduation.

Johnstone says the matter has also been referred to La Quinta police. 

According to The Desert Sun,  La Quinta police Lt. Jason Juskey said that while there are issues of religious insensitivity, if all players are willing participants, the game probably has no criminal implications.

"If a bunch of kids are playing a game and they're voluntarily playing a game ... it doesn't appear to have any criminal liability," he said.