NJ middle school yearbook recalled after Hitler photo published among student baby pics
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A middle school in an upscale New Jersey suburb has started taking back yearbooks after it discovered a photo of Adolf Hitler in the student baby photos section.
“Earlier today, after students had already received their yearbooks, we learned that the baby pictures section of the yearbook contained an image that was later identified as an infant photograph of Adolf Hitler,” Ryan Aupperlee, principal of East Brook Middle School in Paramus, wrote in a June 25 letter to families obtained by NJ.com.
“We immediately collected the yearbooks so the image would not remain in circulation,” the letter assures the school community, noting they were assisting local law enforcement with an investigation.
“I want to be direct with you: the presence of this image is unacceptable. Even if the image was not immediately recognizable to those paging through the book, its inclusion in an official school publication is a severe breach of our values,” Aupperlee wrote.
“Adolf Hitler represents hatred, antisemitism, and the horrors of the Holocaust, including the murder of six million Jews. An image of him has no place in a yearbook created for our students. It does not reflect who we are or what East Brook stands for, and we condemn its inclusion without reservation.”
The principal said the school was working to get an amended yearbook out “as quickly as possible” and will keep the community informed about how it decides to deal with confiscated yearbooks that were already signed by teachers and other pupils.
“Thank you for your patience, understanding, and trust as we work to make this right,” Aupperlee wrote in the letter. “We remain committed to ensuring that our school reflects the values of respect, inclusion, and dignity for every member of our community.”
It was not immediately clear whether a student was responsible for the photo’s inclusion in the yearbook or how it was discovered to be an image of Hitler as an infant.
There have been several instances where a student or former student snuck a Hitler reference into a yearbook for shock value.
In 2021, a Connecticut high school senior was charged with two felony counts of third-degree computer crime after allegedly changing entries in the school’s yearbook to include quotes from the Nazi dictator, including one entry he misattributed to George Floyd.
An Andover, Mass., high school pulled its yearbook prior to publication after the “horrified” principal found out a student had used a quote attributed to Hitler or Joseph Goebbels under his picture