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Parents Outraged to Discover a Shocking Racial Slur Printed in Their Kids' Elementary School Yearbook: ‘Deeply Hurtful'
Parents and students at an elementary school in California discovered a racial slur printed in the school's yearbook
Montclair Elementary School's PTA president said the slur was mistakenly included in a historical article used in the yearbook
The slur also included a reference to an offensive and racist game played at the school in past decadesRelatives of students at an elementary school in California were outraged to discover a racial slur in the school's yearbook.
The incident occurred at Montclair Elementary School in Oakland, Calif. According to ABC 7, the yearbook is curated by parent volunteers, and this year's book contained a section commemorating the school's 100th anniversary.
The section in question contained a number of historical articles about the school — one of which was a piece from 1940 about a school carnival that contained the N-word.
"Boy and Girl Scouts will have charge of booths and many attractions such as n----- babies,' the article read, per ABC 7.
The outlet was able to locate an original photo of one such booth from the era, which entailed White contestants throwing objects at the head of a Black boy for prizes.
In a statement to PEOPLE, John Sasaki, the Director of Communications for the Oakland Unified School District, said, "The entire Montclair School community and Oakland Unified School District are shocked and disgusted by what made it into the yearbook."
He continued, "The end of the school year is a joyful time when all school communities should be celebrating accomplishments and new beginnings, not facing a horrific example of our collective history."
According to Sasaki, Montclair Elementary School and the PTA have "offered full refunds for the yearbook, offered a sticker that families can use to cover the article and suggested families can remove the page entirely, if they so choose."
To prevent the issue from happening again in the future, the director told PEOPLE that "the entire PTA yearbook committee has resigned, and the PTA Historian, who was the yearbook proofreader, is also leaving their role on the PTA. They explained that they included the article without fully reading it, which is how the problem was missed."
Saskai added that the district "is currently working to put in place district-wide protocols for yearbooks and other school / PTA / volunteer publications to ensure there are enough (and the correct) eyes on them before they get printed and distributed, to prevent this kind of thing from happening at any school in the future."
"The PTA has also ordered a reprint of all the yearbooks," per Saskai.
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"I was mad. I was very upset," Natalie Golden, an aunt of one of the school's students, told ABC 7 of the ordeal.
'I was like, 'What the hell is this?' ' Brenda Mitchell, a grandmother of a student, added. 'This is 2025, [not the] 1900s … Why would you bring that out? Why would you even put that in there? It was very inappropriate. Very inappropriate."
The school's principal, David Kloker, sent an email out to school community members in which he apologized for the incident, calling it "deeply hurtful and entirely unacceptable,' per ABC 7.
Sloane Young, the school's PTA president, told ABC that the school would be leading a 'restorative justice circle' in which members of the community can voice how 'this event made them feel.'
While speaking to KTVU, Young explained how the error was made, stating that the volunteers who assembled the yearbook did not read the article in its entirety.
"Unfortunately, they skimmed the first paragraph of that article, and scanned it into the software we use for the yearbook," she said
"I have a very bold, outspoken 8-year-old, and when she saw it, she said, 'Mom, why did you allow this to go in the yearbook when you're Black?' ' she added. "Our community is hurting, our community is angry."
Young, who has accepted full responsibility for the mistake occurring under her leadership, also told KTVU that educational resources have been offered to parents in order to help them navigate conversations about the incident with their children.
Read the original article on People
