Post Yearbook Incident ‘Time To Build Better Tomorrow’ In East Brunswick District

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — The East Brunswick School District met for the final time this school year on June 20.

Addressing the community, Superintendent Victor Valeski once again apologized to the students for the pain caused by the yearbook incident.

He admitted there were challenges ahead, but reiterated the school district’s commitment to addressing them and making improvements.

“And I want to take this opportunity tonight to offer an apology to the East Brunswick community for what the situation has caused, and especially offer an apology to all the students at East Brunswick High School for what this situation has caused them and how it impacted the end of their school year,” Valeski said. “We must all be part of the solution to repair the deep hurt and division that has been created in our school district and community. As adults, we all accept responsibility to build a better tomorrow for our children. I just hope that we can all pledge to do that for them.”

Valeski also reiterated that no student was directly responsible for the mishap.

During the public portion of the meeting, many residents spoke about the controversy, with many expressing dissatisfaction with the investigation.

The Board of Education appointed an independent counsel to look into the matter after the 2024 edition of the high school yearbook had a picture of Muslim students replacing the photo of Jewish students from the Jewish Students Union Club. The names of Jewish students are also missing.

The investigator, Yaacov Brisman of Brisman Law, concluded that the yearbook incident was a “highly unfortunate error” and not a result of “malice.”

One resident questioned the “authenticity” of the independent counsel citing a previous working relationship between the BOE.

Another resident said that the yearbook debacle exposed a lot of trauma that was previously ignored. She said the report that was released does nothing to fix the “underlying culture issues.”

“If anything this report highlights the lack of resources and the top-down lack of accountability that exists in this district,” the resident said.

She noted that although the yearbook advisor made the mistake, she was “failed by the system.”

Meanwhile, Jack Levitt, President of the East Brunswick Education Foundation said the organization would consider grants for diversity and equity training in the school district.

“The Board has called for tolerance training. We don’t believe this should be the goal. We are willing to consider grants for diversity, equity and inclusion with the goals of empathy and building acceptance,” Levitt said.

“We are hoping to see a lot of these grant applications over the summer and hope you find a way to take advantage of these.”

Addressing the comments made by residents, BOE President Laurie Lachs acknowledged that it has been a hard time for the community, but instead of people coming together, some community members "used people's pain, to try and throw stones, and to make issues out of things that didn't need to be.”

The BOE will continue to meet regularly during the summer.

To watch the entire meeting, click here.

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