Homecoming Queen Wins Yearbook Suit

The first black homecoming queen at a suburban high school won $3,500 in a lawsuit filed against the school district for omitting her picture from the yearbook.

“She was an 18-year-old kid and this was special, important,” said her lawyer, Taylor Culver. “She felt insulted by it all.”

Culver called it a civil-rights case. But San Leandro High School says leaving January Cooper out of the 1992 yearbook was an error it cannot explain, as was the omission of a photo of the varsity football team.

“Somebody should have caught the mistake, but there certainly was no racist conspiracy,” said Louis Leone, attorney for the school 15 miles east of San Francisco.

Arbitrator Steven Solomon ordered the school district to give Cooper $3,500 for emotional distress and pay her legal fees. His ruling did not address the allegations of racism.