Probe launched after Jewish student group omitted from New Jersey high school yearbook
A New Jersey school district has hired an outside law firm to investigate how and why a Jewish student group was removed from its high school yearbook, leaving the members’ names off the page and replacing their photo with a photo of a group of Muslim students. .
East Brunswick Public Schools said the independent review by Brisman Law began Friday and will attempt to determine who was responsible, and whether it was malicious or a mistake.
“I am confident that the independent counsel’s investigation will reveal the truth,” said Chief Inspector Victor Valeski. “They have been given full authority to investigate whatever they need to investigate.”
The Chief Inspector has previously apologized for “the hurt, pain and anguish this event has caused our Jewish students” and issued a separate apology to Muslim students.
East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen said in a statement called it a “blatant anti-Semitic act” and said the investigation should consider whether it was a hate crime worthy of prosecution. “Hate has no place in East Brunswick and anti-Semitism will not be tolerated,” he said.
The New Jersey office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for a ‘transparent and fair investigation’. The yearbook incident “has sparked horrific reactions against some Muslim students who had no idea their photo was being misused,” spokesperson Aya Elamroussi said in a statement.
The situation came to light Tuesday after approximately 375 yearbooks were distributed at East Brunswick High.
Valeski said a new photo of the Jewish Student Union was taken this week and will be included, along with the members’ names, in the corrected versions of the yearbook to be distributed next week.
Discipline may be warranted depending on the outcome of the investigation, and a yearbook correction plan will be developed, Valeski said.
“This absolutely should not have happened,” he said. “I believe this was really a lack of quality control, a lack of oversight.”