Parents furious after Arizona 8th grader named 'Most Likely to Bomb the U.S.'

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Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Arizona teen named most likely to bomb U.S.
Arizona teen named most likely to bomb U.S.

PEORIA, Arizona -- An Arizona teen's parents are furious their son was named "Most Likely to Bomb the U.S."

School officials said the eighth grader wrote that comment about himself in the yearbook, but his parents say they can't believe the school still printed the comment.

"I looked down and read, most likely to bomb the U.S. and I just sat there for a second and thought, no way. This is not happening," Bree Brown told ABC15.

Bree's husband, Kian, said he thought it was a joke and didn't believe it.

Bree and Kian are wondering how something like this was actually published with no oversight from the school.

"It was missed. There's a faculty advisor in charge of the yearbook. They did not catch it," said Matthew Benson, a spokesman for the Sonoran Science Academy.

School officials told ABC15 that they are investigating the incident and released the following the statement:

Statement from Principal Deb Hofmeier:

"On Friday night, I became aware of an inappropriate entry included with the 2017-18 yearbook in which a student self-designated they were 'Voted Most Likely to Bomb the U.S.' To be clear, there was no class vote. Each student self-selected a superlative for himself or herself. After speaking with the student and the student's parents, it is apparent the comment was a misguided attempt at humor. There was absolutely no malicious intent on the part of the student.

Regardless, our entire administrative team takes this seriously. The comment should have been caught and removed during the editing process before the yearbook was published. Our school is investigating how this incident occurred, and has already taken disciplinary action against the faculty adviser in charge of the yearbook. Going forward, we will be instituting a more stringent review process to ensure this cannot happen again.

In the meantime, we have reached out to each of our Sonoran Science Academy-Peoria families to express our deep regret regarding this incident. We are also collecting yearbooks from students who had already received them, and will have a new, edited batch printed and distributed at no additional charge to families. On behalf of Sonoran Science Academy-Peoria, I apologize for any inconvenience and for the larger situation, which does not accurately reflect our students, school mission or the values we share with our families and community."