A high school is facing backlash after a caption below a yearbook photo misidentified a student wearing a hijab as “Isis.”
The student at Los Osos High School, located in Rancho Cucamonga, California, posted the photo Friday evening on Twitter and Facebook. The caption didn’t have her name but instead identified her as “Isis Phillips.”
“I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this,” the student, who is not being identified because her family requested privacy, wrote. “Apparently, I am ‘Isis’ in the yearbook. The school reached out to me and had the audacity to say that this was a typo. I beg to differ, let’s be real.”
Trevor Santellan, one of the students who worked on the yearbook, said there actually was a student named Isis Phillips at Los Osos who transferred earlier in the year, according to ABC News’ Los Angeles station, KABC-TV.
The school’s yearbook account tweeted an apology, stating that the misidentification was not intentional.
Principal Susan Petrocelli also apologized for the error and said they were investigating the “regrettable misprint.”
“We are investigating to figure how this happened and we are certainly sensitive to the young lady. We have been in contact with the family and will continue to work with them to determine how this could happen and how we can remedy the situation,” The Chaffey Joint Union High School District said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called for a thorough investigation in a statement released Sunday.
“We join with the family in their concern about a possible bias motive for this incident and in the deep concern for their daughter’s safety as a result of being falsely labeled as a member of a terrorist group,” said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. “No student should have to face the humiliation of being associated with a group as reprehensible as ISIS.”
The girl’s family and the Council on American-Islamic Relations will meet with school administrators today.
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