Muslim student named Isis in California school yearbook

Rasa – A school in California has been forced to apologise after a hijab-wearing student was mistakenly named “Isis” in her yearbook.

News ID: 422338

Date: 13 May 2016 - 23:05

RNA – A school in California has been forced to apologise after a hijab-wearing student was mistakenly named “ISIS” in her yearbook.

Bayan Zehlif, a student in the city of Rancho Cucamunga, 40 miles east of Los Angeles, received her yearbook last week. But beneath her photo she saw that she had been named “Isis Phillips” – and she believes the caption was deliberate.

“I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this,” she wrote on Facebook.

“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.”

Isis used to be a relatively common name, after the Egyptian goddess of love and magic. Since 2000, it has been in the top 1,000 girl names in America and in 2014, 396 baby girls were named Isis, according to US Social Security data.

Susan Petrocelli, the headmistress, said a student named Isis Phillips used to attend the school.

“If there is a student that has responsibly and intentionally committed this, we will take the appropriate action that is necessary,” she said.

The yearbook staff for Los Osos’s “Our Story” apologised on Twitter, calling the incident a mistake.

“We are extremely sorry for what occurred in the yearbook. It is our duty to represent the students of Los Osos High School and by mis-tagging and giving the incorrect name, we failed to do so,” they said.

“It is our fault and this is absolutely inexcusable on our part. We are currently working in coordination with the school and district office to remedy this situation.

“We should have checked each name carefully in the book and we had no intention to create this misunderstanding.”

The school has so far printed 287 yearbooks, out of 3,000 that will eventually be distributed. They have corrected the caption for the next print run.

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