A Chicago high school is forking over $53,794 to reprint its 2018-19 yearbooks after administrators discovered that the book featured students making the “OK” sign with their hands — a sign that some have interpreted to mean “white supremacy.”
The original yearbooks reportedly featured photos of a group of students who were flashing the hand sign.
According to MSN Insider, at least 18 photos contained the offending hand gestures in this year’s Oak Park River Forest High School yearbooks.
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Still, the school shelled out more than $50,000 to have the books reprinted without those pages. The Chicago Sun Times reported that the school initially printed 1,750 copies of this year’s yearbook before demanding the printer re-run all new books without the offending photos.
“I want to be clear that we are not making any presumptions about students’ intent in using the gesture,” she said. “Regardless of intent, however, there is a real and negative impact. Many students, not only our students of color, experience this gesture as a symbol of white supremacy. Potentially subjecting our students to this trauma is simply not acceptable.” – READ MORE