Montclair Elementary in Oakland, California is scrambling to reprint hundreds of yearbooks after families discovered that a 1940 newspaper clipping inside the book used the N-word to describe a carnival booth once run at the school. The yearbook, dubbed “Otter Magic” for the school’s mascot and 100-year anniversary, was assembled by parent volunteers who say they scanned the historic article without reading it from start to finish.
What the Article Said—and the Ugly History Behind It
The clipping described a Depression-era school carnival where “Boy and Girl Scouts will have charge of booths and many attractions such as ‘n—– babies.’” At the time, the so-called game involved white fairgoers throwing balls or eggs at the head of a Black child for prizes—photographic evidence of the booth still exists in local archives.
Immediate Fallout
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“The entire Montclair community is shocked and disgusted,” said Oakland Unified School District spokesperson John Sasaki. The district has offered full refunds, reprinted books, or stickers to cover the page.
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Every member of the PTA yearbook committee and its proofreader has resigned.
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Principal David Kloker emailed families calling the page “deeply hurtful and entirely unacceptable,” while PTA president Sloane Young will host a restorative-justice circle so students and parents can voice how the incident affected them.
How It Slipped Through
Young told local media the volunteers “skimmed only the first paragraph” of the clipping before scanning it into the yearbook software. By the time anyone read the full text, hundreds of copies were already in backpacks.
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District-Wide Safeguards Coming
Oakland Unified is drafting new review protocols: any PTA or volunteer publication will need multiple staff sign-offs and, where possible, a digital filter that flags offensive terms before files are sent to print.
Something You Might Not Know
Computer vision is about to enter the yearbook world. Schools in Texas and Illinois have begun pilot programs that run high-resolution page proofs through AI models trained to detect banned language and hateful imagery. Early tests at one Midwest district caught three slurs and a Confederate flag sticker before print, according to a 2024 paper presented at the ISTE EdTech conference. If Oakland’s new protocol includes a similar tool, next year’s “Otter Magic” could become one of the first California elementary yearbooks to get an AI safety scan before it ever reaches a printing press.
Talking to Kids About It
Montclair’s PTA has circulated age-appropriate reading lists and conversation starters—such as the picture book “Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness”—to help parents discuss racism and media literacy at home. Educators say moments like this, while painful, can be powerful teachable moments on how language, history and bias intersect.
Parents have until the last week of school to return or exchange the flawed copies. The new edition—minus the 1940 clipping—will ship later this summer, ensuring that a celebration of the school’s centennial isn’t forever marred by a relic of its past.
