A community celebration intended to honor Montclair Elementary School’s centennial turned into a painful controversy after the school’s yearbook was published with a shocking racial slur visible in a historic photo.
The 2025 yearbook, themed “Celebrating 100 Years,” included archival articles and photos contributed by parent volunteers. But one page, pulled from a 1940s news clipping, contained the N-word and an offensive image depicting white children throwing balls at Black children under a sign that read, “Hit the N**r Baby.”
The disturbing language was flagged not by adults, but by students—some as young as eight.
“I have a very bold, outspoken eight-year-old,” said Sloane Young, the school’s PTA president and a Black parent at Montclair. “When she saw it, she said, ‘Mom, why did you allow this to go in the yearbook when you’re Black?’”
The article, which described an annual carnival from 1940, was reportedly scanned into the yearbook layout software without being fully read. Volunteers, according to Young, skimmed the article’s first paragraph but overlooked the racially charged imagery and language further down.
By the time the mistake was noticed, hundreds of copies had already been distributed—and many had already been signed by classmates.
Community members were left stunned and outraged.
“This is 2025,” said Brenda Mitchell, a grandparent of a student. “Why would you even put that in there? It was very inappropriate.”
Montclair’s Principal David Kloker quickly issued a formal apology to families and hosted a racial equity circle to address the broader concerns of Black families who have long voiced concerns about racial hostility at the school.
Kloker’s initial solution—offering stickers to cover the slur in existing copies—was met with swift backlash.
“Put a sticker over it? What do you mean, put a sticker over it?” Mitchell said. “They should have collected all the yearbooks, redone them, and passed them back out.”
In response to mounting criticism, Young confirmed that new yearbooks have been ordered, and she plans to personally ensure each family receives a replacement copy this summer.
She also announced that she will be stepping down from the yearbook committee, taking full responsibility under her leadership despite not being the one who scanned the image.
“The description of the game, once you start Googling it, is horrific,” Young said, referring to the carnival game depicted in the image. The historical context, she explained, didn’t excuse the trauma it could cause students and families.
For many in Oakland, the incident was more than a simple oversight. It reignited concerns about racial literacy and the lack of institutional safeguards in schools—even in progressive communities like Montclair.
