The yearbook staff at Quaker Valley High School in Pennsylvania is not ending the year off on a strong note.
Quotes from Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and the current leader of ISIS were featured in the current senior class’s section of the publication.
CBS News reports:
The Hitler quote is "Words build bridges into unexplored regions." Stalin's statement is more menacing: "Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, so why would we let them have ideas?"
The third quote is from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: "Be just: the unjust never prosper. Be valiant. Keep your word, even to your enemies."
The high school has issued a formal apology to parents for this profound negligence. The statement was signed by superintendent Heidi Ondek, principal Deborah Riccobelli and the yearbook sponsor (and English teacher) Tamra Rosa.
“This is a regrettable mistake, as the school district would never knowingly condone this messaging in a school-sponsored publication. We are well aware of the emotions this has conjured in many of our students and their families, and for that we are sorry.”
But the statement also included that “the content of the quotes was reviewed thoroughly, the attributions clearly were not.” How the sponsor, yearbook staff and the administrators who had to approve of all the quotes students proposed for the yearbook missed these three particular ones is beyond me.
The district spokeswoman, Angela Yingling, told Triblive that 360 copies of the book were distributed throughout the student body and costs anywhere between $69 and $100. But they are currently offering refunds to students who would prefer to not keep the yearbook, and stickers for those who simply want to cover up the “offensive” quotes.
It is unknown whether or not anyone, students or administrators, will face any punishment for this horrid mistake.