Homecoming Queen Files Racism Claim

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. —  For the first time, San Leandro High School has a black homecoming queen. But the yearbook failed to carry her homecoming photo, leading to a $250,000 claim and allegations of racial bias.

In addition to the money, January Cooper, 18, wants the school to reissue the yearbook to include the omitted photo.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” she said this week. Cooper said she was “about to start crying” when she first saw the publication in mid-June. “I left school and came home,” she said.

Photographs of homecoming queens have been a feature of the “Spirit Week” section of the school annual for at least six years. The current publication has photos of the homecoming king, who is white, and nominees for queen.

School officials declined comment, saying the matter has been turned over to school attorneys. Cooper’s claim is a legal precursor to a lawsuit.

Yearbook staff member Lisa Armstrong said Cooper’s picture was not the only one that did not make it into the yearbook’s pages. Photos of some faculty members and a group shot of the varsity football team were also left out.

“It could have happened to anyone,” Armstrong said. She said that for the first time in recent memory the yearbook had no editor-in-chief to oversee production and proofread page layouts before publication.

“Sometimes things get messed up and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Armstrong said.