More students at Pickering school find yearbook quotes changed

After an incident at a Pickering high school where a senior student’s yearbook message was switched out for racial slurs, nine other students’ quotes were found to have been changed, Durham police confirmed Friday afternoon.

Investigations with teachers and students at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School have gone on all week, after it was found that Joshua Telemaque’s yearbook message paying tribute to his grandmother was changed into a racial slur referring to Harambe, a gorilla killed in 2016 at an Ohio zoo.

Telemaque’s original message read, “RIP Grandma. Thank you for guiding me through my four years of high school,” and was changed to “Rip Harambe Dooga Booga. o”

In a letter from the school’s principal, Susan Duane advised that all students were to return the published yearbooks. Police say nine other students then came forward with allegations that their quotes had also been changed without their knowledge.

Durham police say that only one other changed message had racist undertones. Others were changed to criticize a female student’s body, and another relating to grades.

Police say the nine students come from varied cultural backgrounds.

Telemaque was described as “devastated” and “embarrassed” after he learned of the incident, according to a socialmedia post by his aunt Mayma Raphael. She added that he had been bullied in the past at the school.

Telemaque was quickly shown the support of his community following the news of the incident. As a recent graduate of St. Mary and a promising football player, he was given a fouryear scholarship donated by the Toronto Argonauts and the Pinball Clemons Foundation.

The culprit who changed the yearbook messages is still unknown to police, but the investigation is continuing.