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“Isis” makes appearance in California school yearbook

May 9, 2016

Isis PhillipsA 17-year-old Southern California high school student is disgusted that she was misidentified in her yearbook as “Isis Phillips.” The student, Bayan Zehlif, is Muslim and is pictured in the yearbook wearing a hijab. [CBS LA]

Susan Petrocelli, the principal of Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, announced on Twitter that the school was investigating “a regrettable misprint” in the yearbook. Petrocelli also said a student named Isis Phillips previously attended the high school and is still enrolled in the school district and that could be the reason for the error.

Zehlif dismissed the school’s reasoning in a statement she posted on Facebook.

“I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this,” Zehlif wrote. “Apparently I am ‘Isis’ in the yearbook. 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.”

Zehlif’s parents say their daughter was subjected to an anti-Muslim slur. The family is working with a civil rights group and is planing to meet with school administrators on Monday. Zehlif will remain at home until both sides agree on a solution.

The school yearbook publishers issued a statement apologizing for the “mis-tagging.”

“We should have checked each name carefully in the book and we had no intention to create this misunderstanding. It is our fault and this is absolutely inexcusable on our part.”

Los Osos High School was previously caught in a controversy after the school newspaper published an article titled, “Is the N-word offensive?”


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Another young person being brought up to believe the world owes them everything….. we are going to be in bad shape for some time with youth like this.


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Fer cryin’ out loud! there was a student formerly at the high school named Isis Phillips. If someone was trying to screw her over they would have named her Isis Zehlif, NOT Isis Phillips. It was a coincidence that the misprint occurred on a picture of a Muslim. Sorry little lady, but nowhere in the Constitution does it guarantee you the right NOT to be offended. YOUR religion is the basis for terrorism around the world. Might as well get used to THAT fact.


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Well, if the school is REALLY sorry, they will re-issue yearbooks with the RIGHT NAMES IN THERE.


Would it be a pain and cost money? Yep.


Would they be more careful from here on out? Hopefully.


I personally find sorry much more meaningful with thoughtful action behind it.


It would also be cheaper than a lawsuit.


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Really feel bad for this young woman. Just because she is Muslim doesn’t mean she is violent, so I can imagine her level of embarrassment was high. I don’t believe what the school says at all. Who is proof-reading and giving the sign off on the yearbook?


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Just wanted to clarify, Los Osos High School is in Rancho Cucamonga and NOT in Los Osos.


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Good thing that it is listed right after the name in the story, or it would be a bit confusing for folks on the central coast!


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SLO is called SLO-Town for a good reason.


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Funniest thing I have read in a long time. Sorry young lady, but we are not the ones blowing things up and killing innocents. Deal with it.


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Most ignorant thing I have read yet today. She is in high school, not doing anything violent.


You tax dollars are killing people and blowing up people every day, She is not but don’t let facts and xenophobia get in the way of your broad brush.


“Deal with it.” She is, you are not.


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Hyper sensitivity from Muslim Americans lands on death ears. My tax dollars that are directed towards the Military defends our nation and kills bad guys.


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The type of simplistic thinking that paints every one with a broad common characteristic as suspect due to the actions/beliefs of a small segment of that group is a sign of intellectual laziness (or worse). It is the sort of mental shortcut that leads to divisiveness among people who often have much in common.

(“Libtards” vs. “Conservidiots”, “Gun Nuts” vs. “Feminazis”, etc., ad nauseum)


Take the time to learn about groups from their point of view — not that of some politician or media pundit with an agenda. You might be surprised to find that they are a bit more rational and not as radical as you have been led to believe. You don’t have to agree with everyone about everything but it is a lot easier to get positive things done if you don’t alienate those with which you disagree by using disrespectful language and (often) unjustified stereotyping.


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“small segment of that group”


#1 It’s not small look at what is going on across the globe.

#2 If you pluck a feather from a ducks back they don’t like it very much. If you continue to pluck the Ducks feathers it will defend it’self in a very violent way. It’s the nature of the Duck. Human nature is at play here as well and it can be ugly when pushed to the limit. I don’t excuse it, it’s ugly and not nice but it’s real. There is a limit to everything and with regards to the Jihad we have reached the limit decades ago.


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It is “small” as a percentage of the world-wide Muslim population. Those who view it favorably vary according to country from essentially none in Lebanon and Iran to less than 8% in most “Arab” countries and Indonesia (the world’s most populous Muslim nation), and less than 15% in all other Muslim countries except Syria (21%). Various sources put the total worldwide at 43 million plus who view ISIS favorably and that is a lot. But it is out of a total population of over 2 billion Muslims — about 2-4% of the total. There are at least 4 times as many Muslims with unfavorable opinions of ISIS as there are of those with favorable opinions (and substantial numbers of “no opinions”)


More importantly, actual ISIS members/fighters total about 30-40,000 or less than 1 in 1000 of those who “support” them. That is about .003% of the world’s Muslim population. That is enough to be concerned about the prospects of a terrorist attack but it is FAR from enough to label all Muslims as terrorists or even prospective terrorists.


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Regrettable, ok. It’s not as if you’ll be called on a yearbook pic in later life. I’m 66 yo and I still have problems getting my Italian first name spelled properly. It’s spelled differently on my SS card, one of my bank accounts, my phone bill. I’ve tried to get it corrected to the proper spelling numerous times over the last 40 yrs, always with assurances that it would be. Nope. But, at least it was spelled properly in my HS yearbook, so there is that.


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Yeah, jeeze, it’s not like they said “ISIS Zehlif” – obviously with both the first and last VERY different (wrong), it is a mistake. Yeah, it sucks to have your name wrong, misspelled, etc. but that happens all the time in yearbooks.


At least they didn’t call you “Daesh”


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Your statement would be true IF there was another student at the school named “Isis Phillips.”


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“Petrocelli also said a student named Isis Phillips previously attended the high school and is still enrolled in the school district and that could be the reason for the error”


From the above story…


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I actually read the story and thankfully (this time) had enough reading comprehension to understand that there WAS a student with that very name! Heck, that was a significant part of the story, actually…


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I was thinking that it was most likely an accident but then I remembered how clueless some teens are about when “humor” is not funny. It could have been done as a tasteless joke if it was done by a student. Either way, the school was in error in not catching it and they have owed up to that.


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How could you say it was a joke if it was the exact name of a former student? Now, you might have an argument if you play the “race” or “religion” card (as most people often trip over themselves to do) by alleging that both girls were muslim and wore head scarfs, etc (i.e. the old “they all look alike” claim).


However, that will probably be the argument a slimeball… er, a lawyer will make.


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Regrettable, Understandable, Accidental? I’m sorry Muslim Americans but things are going to go this way more and more the longer this jihad is on going. I don’t like it, it’s wrong but maybe a little more Muslim complaints and finger pointing towards Isis would be helpful as opposed to her angry words towards her High Schools typo.


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Actually, there have been numerous Muslims and Muslim organizations that have criticized and disavowed ISIS. ISIS attacks anyone in their operating area that is not part of their tiny Muslim sect if they don’t cooperate. The vast majority of Muslims — even some who support other terrorist groups — don’t like ISIS.


The problem is that too many media outlets don’t pay attention to them. What are they supposed to do to make their views heard — stage an anti-ISIS riot?


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Yeah, I don’t think so. They can’t be too loud about it or people from their own religion will lop their heads off.


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“I’m sorry Muslim Americans but things are going to go this way more and more the longer this jihad is on going.”


Saying “things are going to go this way” means you think this was intentional. Actions like this play right into ISIS’s recruiting strategy.


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