Offensive and Racist' Words 'Maliciously' Placed in High School Yearbook, Principal Says

After reports surfaced of "offensive and racist" words that were "maliciously" placed in a California high school yearbook, forcing its recall, administrators said the culprit is an outsider.

The words appear on a page for Berkeley High School's Academy of Medicine and Public Service, a college preparatory program, according to the Daily Californian.

Here's the page in question tweeted by the school's Black Student Union:

Post racial? Really? pic.twitter.com/yXMNorSIlP

— Black Student Union (@BerkeleyBSU) June 3, 2015

The phrase that caused the yearbook recall was “... making our future doctors, dentists, nurses, physicians, fire chiefs and trash collators of tomorrow.”

Principal Kristin Glenchur called the words “offensive and racist," the Daily Californian said, citing an email announcement she sent Wednesday evening.

District spokesman Mark Coplan told the Contra Costa Times that the words are considered racist because over half of the academy's students are "of color."

"The implication was that they were training to be trash collectors," he said, "and we found that to be hugely offensive."

Image source: Berkeley High School website

“What occurred does not just affect the AMPS community, but has had a profound and hurtful impact on all of us,” Glenchur told the Daily Californian.

Glenchur also was determined to find out how "unedited and inflammatory language" was "maliciously" placed in the yearbook, the Times said.

Coplan told the Times Thursday that "somebody outside of the academy" replaced the original word "innovators" with "trash collators" — likely a misspelling of "trash collectors" — sometime between the final edit and the print run.

"This was proofed and this language was not in there," he said, adding that the yearbook editing team includes faculty, advisers and students.

It's unclear if additional text on the page was purposely removed or misspelled.

About 1,500 copies of yearbook, which spans over 500 pages, have been printed. A sticker with the correct language will be placed over the offending words, Coplan told the Times.

"We feel that this (prank) was a disservice not only to our students but to sanitation workers, to imply that their work is anything less than admirable," he added.

(H/T: The College Fix)

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