Was it a simple mistake – or subtle discrimination against some of society’s most vulnerable?

That’s what’s at issue at Quail Glen Elementary School in a case that garnered national media attention this week. And at the center of it all is what’s in the school’s yearbook.

Or, rather, what’s not in it: class portraits of autistic students in a special class held at the Roseville school.

Those omissions have infuriated Darla and Blandon Granger, parents of twin autistic second graders in the program who are now questioning why an entire class was left out. And the incident is focusing attention on how special needs students are included – or not – on school campuses.

Local school district and county office of education officials say the omission is the result of an oversight in the yearbook production process and won’t happen again.

“We feel very badly about the fact that their class picture was left out of the yearbook,” said Mark Geyer, superintendent of the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District. “It was some kind of a disconnect in the process of publishing the yearbooks – it was certainly not intentional.”

Check back later for more on this developing story.