Ventura High School in California has recalled its yearbooks after discovering that inappropriate superlatives attached to some students were intentionally concealed, KABC reports.
One student, Morgan Jensen, was confused after being named “Most Likely to Be a TV Star” and “Best Dancer” in her yearbook. “She was like, ‘This is so random, I’m not a dancer,’ her mother Stephanie Tindall said. “So she posted it on her Snapchat and somebody responded and said, ‘Those are stickers, peel it off.’ And so she peeled off the stickers.’”
What Morgan found underneath was that she was actually considered “Most Likely to Get COVID Twice” and “Most Likely to Be Canceled.”
“It’s a really big deal right now. COVID is obviously a real thing and people have lost family members so don’t think that’s something that should be in a yearbook,” Jensen said. “And the cancelled one was, I’ve already been bullied for this type of thing, ‘Oh you’re going to get cancelled’ so it wasn’t really funny.”
Another student, Ace Ly, was among the eight students on the page subjected to this hateful prank. “COVID happened. Asian hate happened. Now I’m getting this,” Ly said. “I’m just over everything, how it hurts my head. When I saw, I was surprised and disappointed.”
Officials at the school said that distribution of the yearbooks has been halted and students have been asked to return the ones that were given to them. “On behalf of the entire school, our yearbook staff, and our district, I am very sorry this has occurred. I especially want to apologize to the students and their families that were affected. You are all special, unique, and should be seen in the best possible light,” Ventura High School principal Carlos V. Cohen said in a statement.
