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School to Reprint Yearbook Pages after Racial Prank

KTLA News

9:42 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

COVINA -- A Covina high school will order reprints of a yearbook page that attributed fake names to members of the Black Student Union and other classmates, an incident that sparked anger and debate in the Charter Oak High School community and beyond.

The decision followed weeks of investigation into how names such as "Tay Tay Shaniqua," "Crisphy Nanos" and "Laquan White" were wrongly attributed to BSU members in a yearbook photo.

Although other errors were made, Principal Kathleen Wiard and others have said the false names for the BSU members were the most offensive.

Wiard said last week that the school had found "different levels of accountability" at both the "student and adult level." She has declined to say what, if any, disciplinary measures the school will pursue. The yearbook advisor and staff were not at Monday's meeting.

When the fake names were first discovered before the end of the school year, officials made corrective stickers available to cover over them, but few students took them. School officials said the names were put in place as filler until yearbook staff members could replace them with the actual names but then they made it into print.

The school now will use its automatic phone call system to alert students when the replacement page can be picked up on campus. In addition to the replacement page, the school will also make available another page with photos and names of sophomores accidentally left out by the printer, Wiard said.

The pages, which Wiard said she expects to be available in a few weeks, will be free to students. School officials will be trained on how to replace and insert the pages without damaging the book's binding.

Wiard said she is hopeful all 1,350 students who ordered yearbooks will pick up the replacement pages.

"We wouldn't want any books out there with this in there," she said.

Jordan Smith, a BSU member who graduated last month, said replacing the pages is "better than having the yearbooks printed again." Students have collected messages and signatures from friends -- keepsakes that would be lost with new books, she said.

Still, Smith, 18, said the resolution generated mixed feelings among her fellow BSU members.

"Some people are [satisfied], some people aren't," said Smith, 18. "I just feel like nothing's going to fix it; it's already done."

Smith said a key discussion at the meeting involved preventing another such incident.

Wiard said they will work with their yearbook printing company to improve the proofing processes, which failed to catch the fake names. Going forward, Wiard said the school will require safeguards such as editors and the advisor signing off on proofs.

The school will also look at its diversity education, Wiard said.

"If there's one person on our campus that thought it was OK to write this . . . This tells us maybe we need to look at it one more time and talk about it, and hear what each other has to say," she said.