District apologizes after 12 students with disabilities left out of Chapel Hill High School yearbook

Officials with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system are apologizing after 12 students with disabilities were left out of a high school yearbook. 

Parent Krista Zelt Caraway made the discovery that portraits of her two students with disabilities did not make it into Chapel Hill High School's yearbook.

"[My son] called me around 1:30, 2:00, very upset and he said, 'I'm coming home,' which is very unlike him. And he said, 'I'm not in it.'" Caraway said. 

A district spokesperson confirms the mistake, saying the students were "inadvertently" left out.

"The issue stems from gaps in the school’s internal procedures and checks, rather than an intentional exclusion of students with disabilities," the spokesperson said in an email to WRAL. Chapel Hill High School and our district as a whole recognize the heartbreak and anger that’s been felt, and for that we are deeply sorry.

The district said all of those who were left out are students with disabilities. "...they don't matter, and they don't exist, quite frankly," Caraway said regarding the message she thinks the incident sends to students with disabilities. "This is a historical record. These stay in schools. For some of these students, it may be their only record of existence. It's very important that they're in there."

Impacted students are expected to receive professionally updated yearbooks in an effort to correct the error, according to a school spokesperson. 

Caraway believes those efforts don't go far enough and called for a reprint of every inaccurate yearbook for proper inclusion.

"They've both been excluded from yearbooks in prior years. So, it's not a one-off thing," Caraway said. 

A CHCCS spokesperson said the incident is prompting a review of internal processes at all district schools. 

Those measures could include checking student grade levels to ensure accurate class rosters and pulling senior portraits from multiple places that do them. The school system tells WRAL News there were at least two options for students to have a portrait taken this year.