Bayan Zehlif is a Muslim high school student at Los Osos High School in California, and like most high school students, she was excited to get her yearbook. When she turned to the page that held her photo, she was shocked to see that she had been identified as "Isis Phillips."
"I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this," Bayan, a junior, wrote on Facebook. "Apparently I am 'Isis' in the yearbook. 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."
Chaffey Joint Union High School District Superintendent Mat Holton told the Los Angeles Times that Bayan was incorrectly identified as another student named Isis, and not for ISIS, the acronym often used for the terrorist Islamic State group. He added that the school contacted both students and their families and assured them that an investigation would be conducted.
"If they find that a student acted irresponsibly and intentionally, administration will take appropriate actions," Holton told the Times. "The school will assure students, staff and the community that this regrettable incident in no way represents the values, or beliefs, of Los Osos High School."
According to the Times, the school distributed 287 yearbooks Friday before the error was discovered. It has since stopped giving out yearbooks and has asked that any students who received one promptly return it to the school.
After news of the incident spread on social media, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for a "thorough investigation."
"We join with the family in their concern about a possible bias motive for this incident and in the deep concern for their daughter's safety as a result of being falsely labeled as a member of a terrorist group," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the council's Los Angeles chapter, in a statement viewed by the Times. "No student should have to face the humiliation of being associated with a group as reprehensible as ISIS."
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.