Utah high school yearbook describes rival as 'ghetto,' 'trash'

close

Video

Hateful words splattered across high school yearbook

Nasty words in yearbook cause community outrage.

A Utah high school came under fire last week after a page in its yearbook described a rival school as “ghetto,” “trash” and “annoying” among other negative descriptions.

Maple Mountain High School’s yearbook printed a word cloud in the shape of a devil’s face to describe Springville High School. The page was entitled “Describe Springville,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Maple Mountain officials issued an apology Saturday, saying the page didn’t reflect how students felt about Springville High School, according to a message posted on the Nebo School District’s Facebook page.

“We acknowledge and accept responsibility for our mistake. We are taking action to resolve the situation and to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen in the future,” officials said.

Some students at Springville were upset by the logo once the picture surfaced on social media.

“My first reactions were, like offended, a little mad,” Jesse Hullinger, a senior at Springville High School, told FOX13 Salt Lake City.

However, Hullinger was trying to laugh off the controversy.

“Maple Mountain tried taking this cheap-shot right at the end of the year and it just totally backfired on them!” he said.

Emma Huntington, a sophomore and a yearbook staff member at Maple Mountain High School, told the paper that she wanted to apologize for the logo that appeared in the publication.

“When I first saw the logo I was stunned, hurt, and angry,” she told the paper. “I know your school and you are the complete opposite of the words on the logo. You are strong, kind, loving, helpful, fun, responsible, and so much more and I am honored to know you.”

Maple Mountain High School is set to hold an assembly Monday to address the controversy and the school district plans to make T-shirts to unify the rival schools, according to FOX13.