Utah school district condemns offensive yearbook quote
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Salt Lake City School District condemned a student's yearbook quote after a social media post about it went viral.
A student at Highland High School posted on Facebook a photo of another student's quote that read, “There are two genders and a lot of mental illnesses."
The school district confirmed the incident in a statement. The post was shared more than 3,000 times.
“This is a clear attack towards the trans community at Highland,” the student who shared the initial social media post said. The student said the post was extremely offensive to many of the school's students and demanded action be taken against the student and the administrator who “made it so hate speech could go into our 2020 yearbook.”
The school district's Interim Superintendent Larry Madden apologized to those felt attacked.
“To have something like this included in one of our high school yearbooks is abhorrent," Madden said. He said the school is committed to providing a safe and equitable learning environment for all students, including the LGBTQ community.
The district will investigate what led to the quote's publication and ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen in the future, Madden said.