New Jersey school yearbook photo of Jewish group swapped with Muslim students was a ‘highly unfortunate error,’ probe finds

An independent investigation launched after seniors at a New Jersey high school received yearbooks with a Jewish Student Union photo that had been replaced by a photo of Muslim students has determined the incident was an unfortunate error with no ill intent.

An independent investigation launched after seniors at a New Jersey high school received yearbooks with a Jewish Student Union photo that had been replaced by a photo of Muslim students has determined the incident was an unfortunate error with no ill intent. The swapped photo appeared in East Brunswick High School’s 2024 yearbook that was handed out to the senior class – prompting an independent investigation that started on June 6 and was completed on Tuesday, according to attorney Yaacov Brisman, whose law firm was retained by the school district to conduct the probe. Seniors who received the yearbooks had been asked to return them so that the errant page can be replaced, CNN previously reported. An unidentified school staff member who served as a Yearbook Club advisor placed the incorrect image in the yearbook, Brisman said in the report. “I conclude that the use of the incorrect photograph was not purposeful, but rather was a highly unfortunate error,” Brisman wrote in the findings, adding the staff member’s actions were “at best careless” but “can also be considered negligent.” “… I have no basis to find that she acted out of any animus, racial, religious, or political, towards Jewish or Muslim students,” he said in the report.