California’s Berkeley High School yearbook, in which a group consisting primarily of minority students was described as “the trash collators of tomorrow”NBC screenshot
California’s Berkeley High School yearbook, in which a group consisting primarily of minority students was described as “the trash collators of tomorrow”
NBC screenshot

Seniors at Berkeley High School in California were shocked and insulted when they got their yearbooks and saw that students in the AMPS program—the Academy of Medicine and Public Service—were described as future “trash collators.” The word “innovators” had been replaced, NBC Bay Area reports.

Robael Gizachew, a senior at the school, said he definitely thinks it was a racist gesture because he feels that some people affiliated with the school don’t think highly of the AMPS students, who are presumed to be predominantly African American.

“I believe it’s racist because they don’t expect highly of us,” Gizachew said. Gizachew and his friends also noted that this wasn’t their first brush with racism on campus.

School officials have recalled all of the yearbooks. They placed a sticker over “trash collators” that contains the word they say they intended to use: “innovators.” School officials have also launched an investigation to find out what led to the misprint and vowed to punish the person responsible.

Read more at NBC Bay Area.