Parents outraged after Florida high school edits girls’ yearbook pictures to make clothes more conservative
A high school in Florida is facing accusations of sexism after it reportedly edited dozens of yearbook pictures to make female students’ outfits more conservative.
According to Action News Jax , Bartram Trail High School altered 80 different yearbook photos – all of them of girls. In many of them, crudely photoshopped rectangles in the colour of the girls’ clothing can be seen covering up their chests.
Many of those students have expressed outrage.
“I felt confident that day and I looked good, in dress code,” ninth grader Zoe Iannone told Action News Jax . “When I sent it to my mom and all of us saw it, I felt very sexualized, like that was what they were worrying about.”
“Our daughters of Bartram deserve an apology,” one anonymous mother told the station. “They are making them feel embarrassed about who they are.”
In a statement, the high school defended the alterations.
“Bartram Trail High School’s previous procedure was to not include student pictures in the yearbook that they deemed in violation of the student code of conduct,” the school said, “so the digital alterations were a solution to make sure all students were included in the yearbook.”
The school also offered to refund any parents unhappy with the yearbook, and delicately added that administrators had been “receiving feedback” about it.
But some families say a refund isn’t enough, and complain of a double standard. While 80 girls were covered up, the school left alone a photo of the boys’ swim team – who were wearing speedos .
“It doesn’t make any sense that they looked at that and were like, ‘This is okay, but this is not,’” Riley O’Keefe, a ninth grade student whose photo was edited, told First Coast News .
Riley’s mother, Stephanie Fabre, added that the “code of conduct” isn’t even being applied consistently to the girls.
“Yesterday she happened to be wearing the shirt again so after school, we went up to the school and asked if she was in dress code and they said yes,” Ms Fabre told the station . “So my next question was, if the shirt is in dress code and is good enough for school and your school ID, why is it not enough for the yearbook?”
More pics:
Alleged conservatives always have their panties in a bunch over something!
Thankfully, it wasn't a Muslim school
Maybe it's your lucky day and someone will chase your squirrel.
bwah ha ha ha ha ha...
Brilliant!
(If NT had an award for the best comment of the day-- yours would be the clear winner!)
I hope not, I'm trying to get demoted to Junior Jerk.
Double standards are lacking in standards.
If that is one of the censored pictures I see nothing wrong with it. If she took the sweater off and the sides were cut out of the tank top or something like that I might think differently . I think there is some decorum appropriate in yearbook pictures, but this photo doesnt violate that, imo.
As far as boys wearing speedos, I have a feeling that was a group picture of the swimming team, and not an individual student portrait photo. Difference.
When I proofed photos for the yearbook, I found one of the basketball team and one of the players sans a cup had Mr. Winky hanging out in all of his glory. I pointed it out but the teacher said "No big deal. No one will notice." EVERYONE noticed. When the teacher gathered up the yearbook staff for damage control, I told him I had warned him and to not count on me for any damage control.
My senior yearbook had two of my classmates giving the Nazi salute. Apparently, neither the editor nor the yearbook advisor had a problem with that.
That raises an interesting question. Why?
Were they actually so unaware as to not recognize what it meant?
Or were they so unaware (or self-involved) as to not even notice it?
(Or, another possibility that IMO is highly unlikely-- that they themselves were Nazi sympathizers?)
Actually, I'd vote for some version of plain 'ole stupidity!
The yearbook advisor was a very well-educated woman, so I'm absolutely sure she was aware what it meant.
The editor, who was a student, was also aware of what it meant, and is a white woman now married to a black man, so I doubt she is or was a Nazi sympathizer.
My best guess is that the editor thought it was a joke, and the advisor wasn't paying adequate attention. So, maybe stupidity, to a degree.
Want to bet they are now both R's?
I think the advisor has passed - she was nearing retirement age then. The editor - not sure. Mostly, I'd say she leans liberal, but she was pretty upset when same-sex marriage became legal. I really wanted to point out that the same sort of laws would have prevented her from marrying her husband, before Roe v. Wade, but didn't want to blow up Facebook. The parallels likely would have escaped her.
Conservatives can't stop f@#king (no pun intended) with women's bodies !
The school has recently approved this as being acceptable for yearbook photos.
oh look, the evangelical xtian hijab...
Lol you forgot the veil
She's hot!
I like her smile.
I'm getting a woody just thinking about her possibly exposed ankles.
Unacceptable, look at all that neck cleavage.
my high school tried to control content in our year book by turning it into a sports section and pushing all the other extracurricular activities of the year onto three pages. a group of us threatened to boycott the sale and publish an alternative year book. the school board caved in less than 72 hours, since we had beaten the shit out of them the previous year in the state supreme court with the 1st amendment by publishing an alternative school newspaper. instead of a cash settlement we all accepted credits towards graduation for our efforts and they paid all the legal fees and court costs.
I went to the article and looked at the before's and after's. There was not a damn thing wrong with the before's. With all the falderal, I was expecting this:
The after's were inexcusable. The quality of the editing was the true punishment. It was clearly meant to embarrass and shame these girls. I have no doubt there will be a second version of this particular yearbook, and maybe a little extra lunch money for the girls when school starts in the fall.
Agreed
She looks like my high school art teacher Miss Petts.
That's odd. She told me her name was Candi Doodles.
Miss Petts was fired for 'wardrobe malfunctions' ... she may well have changed her name.
I was hoping for that, Lol
...I was really hoping for that when I was 17. boo hoo hoo
I'd give that outfit points for being so revealing.
But in addition (its hard to tell in the photo)...are those stockings actually rubber?
If so, I give it extra points for being kinky!
If they really wanted to freak people out-- they should have included a modest whip and some restraints...but I guess ya can't "have it all"...?
(You know... Fifty Shades and all...)
Don't hold your breath. Yearbook orders are very expensive and take a long time to fill. There's also usually some minimum order and I doubt many families beyond the 80 affected by this will be interested. In the meantime, they want to get out the books they have so kids can sign them. This sucks, but I doubt very much there will be any kind of remedy. At best, maybe these families will get a refund, but even that much is likely to be a struggle.
I suggest a calendar.
I was young, I needed the work
A high school in Florida is facing accusations of sexism after it reportedly edited dozens of yearbook pictures to make female students’ outfits more conservative.
Anyone ever notice that of all the stories of human weirdness we are subjected to every day-- a disproportionate number are about Florida?
I made a comment to my wife this morning that our state legislature is trying to make us out Florida Florida with that stupid ass ballot “audit”.
Noticed that myself.
It seems like a ridiculous and unnecessary action. At minimum, I think if school officials had a problem with someone's outfit in a picture, it should be a conversation with parents, with a retake option if absolutely necessary. Just modifying the pictures and taking a family's money for a book with a doctored picture is obnoxious.
On top of that, it has the effect of shaming these kids, and from the picture they show us as an example, that shaming appears wildly unjustified.
It seems to me that in the time it took to alter all of these photos, some phone calls could have been made or emails could have been sent to families, conversations had, and possibly reshoots if necessary. Then maybe the students and families would be annoyed, but at least they wouldn’t have been publicly embarrassed.
But but but, that would make sense! For real though, do you expect the people who thought those pictures were inappropriate in the first place have the capacity to think in the complex manner that you described?
Yeah... looked at some of the pics and didn’t see anything wrong with them. If what those girls were wearing was insufficient for school administrators then someone should tell them to avoid going out in public, watching the or movies, and definitely to stay off the internet. Gotta protect those virgin eyes...
And to the administration, seriously, ONLY the girls? If you are gonna pull some shit like that at least try to not make the sexism completely obvious.