More profiles altered in yearbook, police say

PICKERING, ONT. — Police east of Toronto have expanded an investigation centred on a high school where a Black student’s yearbook entry was altered to include a racial slur, saying more students have reported their profiles being tampered with.

Nine more students at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School have come forward since the original complaint was filed, alleging their yearbook entries were changed, Durham Regional Police said.

Officers interviewed faculty and students at the school this week to determine who was responsible for the racist yearbook entry, police said, after a quote provided by Joshua Telemaque honouring his late grandmother was allegedly altered to contain a racist slur referring to a gorilla that was shot at the Cincinnati zoo.

“When I saw it, my heart stopped. It was heartbreaking to hear him cry,” said Telemaque’s mother, Marva Massicot-Telemaque.

She said her son had been bullied at the school before, but nothing that reached the level of the change to the yearbook entry. “A yearbook is something that everyone has access to. It can be shared,” she said.

Police said in a statement on Friday that their investigation includes the nine new complaints, only one of which involves alleged racism.

Police said one female student was criticized for body image and another for his grades. The nine new students who came forward were a mix of male and female students from different cultural backgrounds, they added. Word of the altered entries prompted the school to recall the published yearbooks.