Parents push back after Chapel Hill yearbook omits 12 students with disabilities
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chapel Hill High yearbook omitted individual photos for 12 students in ECAC programs.
- School apologized for a clerical error and will give affected students new yearbooks.
- Parents and alumni reported similar omissions in past years at district schools.
When Luke Lee got his 2025-26 yearbook, the Chapel Hill High School senior was so upset that he left school and walked home.
Luke’s mom Krista Zelt Caraway looked through the book, finding him in a group senior picture and in the background of another photo, but his individual senior photo and his name were missing.
So were the names and individual photos of 11 other students, including his sister and fellow senior Lexi Abernethy, all of whom are in the exceptional children’s and adapted curriculum programs at Chapel Hill High School, Caraway said.
Luke said he’s “kind of mad and sad about it,” especially for his non-verbal classmates who can’t speak up for themselves.
“Honestly, it feels like [I’m] an extinct animal … because my presence is there, I made a difference, but there’s no historical record of me,” said Luke, who is on the autism spectrum.
He asked the school to refund the $90 he paid for the yearbook, but he’d rather see the school provide new copies to everyone with all the student photos, he said.
It’s not just about what’s right, Caraway said. The omission also poses potential legal issues related to equal access, inclusion and visibility under federal disabilities and educational law.
On Monday, the school apologized in its weekly message to families “for a clerical error that led to several students not being represented in the yearbook.”
“We are sorry for any distress we may have caused students and families. We are reviewing our procedures to prevent future situations like this,” the message said.
District spokesman Andy Jenks said late Tuesday that the students who are directly affected will get new yearbooks with their photos included. The school is making professionally produced insert pages available for friends who want to add their photos to yearbooks they already purchased, he said.
The students were not intentionally left out, he said in a statement, acknowledging that new yearbooks may not “undo some of the harm this has caused.”
“In Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that all students are seen, valued and included. Chapel Hill High School and our district as a whole recognize the heartbreak and anger that’s been felt, and for that we are deeply sorry,” Jenks said.
School, district respond to problem
It’s not the first time students with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been omitted from Chapel Hill school yearbooks, according to parents.
One parent told The News & Observer that her East Chapel Hill High School student and her classmates were omitted from the 2022-23 yearbook, and Lexi was left out of the school’s yearbook last year, Caraway said. A former ECHHS student who sent an online message to Caraway said the same thing happened to her over 10 years ago.
Luke was also left out of the Estes Hills Elementary School yearbook in the fifth grade, Caraway said.
She and her husband reached out to school officials last week when they realized what had happened. In email exchanges shared with The N&O, Chapel Hill High interim Principal Jacqueline Ellis blamed the omission on “gaps in our procedures and internal checks.”
The yearbook adviser did not receive photos of the affected students, she said, even though some were taken by Cady, the official school photographer. Others were taken during a PTSA fundraiser with the expectation that they would be in the yearbook.
Chapel Hill High is looking now at what happened and how to change its procedures “to ensure stronger collaboration and verification processes so that all students are properly included and represented,” Jenks said. Other schools will also review their internal processes, he said.
Should every student get a new yearbook?
All CHHS students should get new yearbooks, Caraway said when she heard about the district’s response Tuesday. Many have reached out to her to say they are also upset after seeing her post on Facebook, she said.
Giving them just to the affected students is not “representative of the total school community or equity and inclusion,” she said. Her students deserve to be celebrated by their peers and have the “enormous adversity” they overcame recorded, she said.
Luke completed an occupational study program at CHHS for his final year, after three years in a group home, and took honors classes, earned straight A’s and worked two periods a day as an assistant in an Adaptive Curriculum classroom.
He had just attended prom with friends and was looking forward to graduation, she said.
Lexi also made great strides after escaping an abusive home and joining the Caraway family. She “is now thriving in community, friendship, safety, and belonging,” Caraway said.
Despite their achievements, the senior experience — from where to get senior yard signs to prom and graduation — “has felt separate, reactive and isolating rather than naturally inclusive,” Caraway told school counselor Imani Agee in an email.
It should not be a family’s responsibility to ensure students with disabilities are included in school activities and programs, she said.
“Over time, experiences like this can unintentionally leave EC students, teachers, and families feeling othered, less connected, and like an afterthought rather than fully included members of the senior community. I do not believe that is anyone’s intent, but it is how it can feel,” she said.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 7:30 AM.
