Bayan Zehlif is not Isis. Or ISIS.
But that’s how the Muslim student discovered she was identified in the latest edition of the yearbook at her Rancho Cucamonga, California, high school.
Zehlif posted a photo of her yearbook photo to Twitter, saying only, “I guess I’m Isis in the yearbook …”
“I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this,” she wrote on Facebook. “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.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted Chaffey Joint Union High School District Supt. Mat Holton as saying Zehlif was incorrectly identified as another student whose first name is Isis. The Times quoted Holton as saying that the district will take “appropriate actions” if officials find that anyone involved in the situation “acted irresponsibly and intentionally.”
Susan Petrocelli, the principal of Los Osos High, apologized on Twitter, saying officials are working to understand and correct what she called a “regrettable misprint.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Sunday that civil rights attorneys from its Los Angeles office are investigating.
“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, the council’s Los Angeles executive director. “No student should have to face the humiliation of being associated with a group as reprehensible as ISIS.”
Zehlif has received support in the wake of her postings. Commenters on her social media posts said the mix-up was “utterly disgusting” and “unacceptable.”
The name ISIS, of course, has become associated with the terror group based in Syria and Iraq. Its rise has prompted several companies to change names to avoid being associated with it, including a pharmaceutical company, a mobile payments company and others.
