The PTA at an Oakland elementary school is apologizing after discovering a racist slur in the 2025 school yearbook.
According to KTVU, parents from Montclair Elementary School made the shocking discovery that dates back to 1940. The school republished an old article from the Montclarion that included the phrase “Hit The N-Word Babies,” referencing a carnival game once held at the school’s annual Otterwalk. According to an article posted in Medium, Boy and Girl Scouts back then would charge booths and many attractions for the “n-word babies” games.
“The description of the game, once you start Googling it, is horrific,” PTA President Sloane Young told the local television station.
Historical descriptions of the games reveal that it was a game that included a Black child or person who would stick their head through a curtain while participants threw objects at the Black person with eggs or baseballs.
Young said she was first made aware of the slur ahead of the Memorial Day weekend after hundreds of copies had already been distributed to students.
“Our community is hurting. Our community is angry,” Young said, adding that the volunteers who put the yearbook together missed the offensive content.
“Unfortunately, they skimmed the first paragraph of that article and scanned it into the software we use for the yearbook,” she said.
How The PTA Is Moving Forward Following Racist Slur
According to Young, the PTA has immediately ordered reprints of the yearbook. Additionally, the PTA is taking a few steps to help parents navigate the article. For starters, the PTA is providing parents with stickers for students who have already gathered them so parents can cover up the offensive language. The organization is also providing families with educational resources to help families navigate conversations with their children.
“It was never to erase, turn a blind eye, or whitewash this horrific time in history,” Young added. “It was really to give parents agency, and so we provided them with resources and options.”
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