Labeled Isis in School Yearbook

A Muslim highschool student in California is upset after she was erroneously labeled “Isis Phillips” in her yearbook.

On Friday evening, Bayan Zehlif, a student at Los Osos high school in Rancho Cucamonga, California, tweeted a photo of a page in her yearbook, containing her class photo with the name “Isis Phillips” underneath.

I guess I'm Isis in the yearbook… pic.twitter.com/hMc0dVu8dM

— βΔΨΔΠ (@BayanZehlif) May 7, 2016

The tweet garnered outrage, with many of Zehlif’s fellow students encouraging her to report the incident. Zehlif replied noting that her mother plans to meet with Susan Petrocelli, the principal at Los Osos, and intends to “open a case” if no answers are given.

Petrocelli told The Islamic Monthly that she has convened an investigation into the matter to determine how “Isis Phillips” appeared under Zehlif’s photo.

Petrocelli confirmed that there is a student with the name Isis Phillips who used to attend Los Osos, and is still part of the school district. In a Facebook post, Zehlif said, “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.” Yet Petrocelli says, “I would never say it was a typo or a mistake. As I told Bayan’s family, this matter has to be thoroughly investigated first.”

Petrocelli stressed that the school is taking the matter seriously. “If there is a student that has responsibly and intentionally committed this, we will take the appropriate action that is necessary.”

This investigation has only just begun because of when the matter arose, Petrocelli says, adding that they aren’t capable of getting in touch with students until they return to class on Monday. Petrocelli said that the yearbook is put together by a class of Los Osos students, as well as student editors.

Only 287 yearbooks have gone out thus far, and have only been distributed to seniors, according to Petrocelli. There are over 3,000 students at Los Osos. The rest of the yearbooks have been locked up, Petrocelli says, and the school has begun to work with a publishing company to rectify the error.

Students have begun to share photos correcting the error in the yearbook.
Credit: Bayan Zehlif on Twitter, and Katarina Barbour on Twitter.

Petrocelli says she has reached out to Zehlif and Phillips’ family, and will be meeting with the former on Sunday morning. She was not able to offer a prediction on when the results of the investigation will be announced.

This post will be updated when more information is made available.