Controversy: School Edits Girls' Yearbook Photos

Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
Female students from Wasatch High School in Utah were in for a surprise when they eagerly opened their new yearbook.

Photos have been edited so that students showed less skin. Bare shoulders were covered and low necklines were raised.

The editing policy doesn't seem to be uniformly applied to all girls, an oversight the school administration apologizes for. But that's all they're sorry for. The school has a "modesty policy" that bans "extreme clothing". Utah has a large Mormon community, which is likely at the root of the conservative approach.

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Published dress code policy
 
Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
My opinion is...

WHAT DID THEY EXPECT?

There's a published dress code. It's a Mormon community in one of the most conservative areas in the country. Duh.

My question is, who the heck edited all those photos? That's some extreme editing, and while cloning clothes isn't that big of a deal, it's time consuming. And to do it for an entire yearbook...yikes.

Who is this photographer? Who paid for all that extra editing, or did he (she/they) do it for free because of shared conservative clothing ideals? Did the school pay for the extra editing?

THERE is the real story in my opinion. Did the school use its own (public) funds to pay for this editing?
 
C

carguy

Senior Member
If these pictures were funded by the school and or taken on school property, why was the dress code not enforced BEFORE the students sat down for the pictures?

Hard to side with the students based on what I see so far.
 
J

john*thomas

Senior Member
I agree with the girls as this is a public school. If it was a private school I would feel differently. That said, I do have a problem with someone allowing a sophomore to get a tattoo.
 
Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
There are still dress code standards @ public schools. Some are far more lenient than others.

When I was in school (80's - early 90's), there was a written dress code published in the student hand book that every student and parent had to sign off on each year. It was conservative also. My mother remembered having to fight to be able to wear jeans at the same school in the 70's. For us, it was shorts. There was nothing published about wearing shorts to school. It was kind of an unwritten rule that you could only wear shorts @ the beginning and end of the school year, during the months of August and May. They would include over the morning announcements when it was okay to start wearing shorts.

During my senior year, the "skort" became popular with girls. For lack of a better fashion term, it was a combo skirt/short and was somewhat dressy. The girls got away with wearing it because they classified it as a skirt. Several of us decided to fight The Man, and we all wore shorts to school one day. They were nice shorts, and we wore button down shirts with them. We didn't even make it to our first class of the day before we were told to go home to change. We refused and were suspended. We caused a rebellion, and because there was nothing published, everyone started wearing shorts. The school responded by updating the dress code for shorts for the next school year and it has stood ever since.

We couldn't wear sweatpants, unless it was a goofy school spirit day (wear sweatpants, pajamas, etc). No hats of any kind, ever. Not even after school hours, like @ basketball games. No student could wear a hat @ a school function. No open-toed shoes.

I'm pretty sure most of this stuff still stands today.
 
N

nononadanope

Senior Member
carguy said:
Why was the dress code not enforced BEFORE the students sat down for the pictures?

Hard to side with the students based on what I see so far.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking. They should have reminding the students a couple days before hand, maybe even providing them a letter to remind them of the schools policy.
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I remember when I was in High School. I went to school one day wearing a t-shirt that said "Cereal Killer". (Yes cereal, as in the food) and I was told to either turn it inside out or the school would provide me with a sweater to put over it. I asked what was wrong with it because other kids had graphic type shirts on as well. I was told that some students may mis-interpret the wording and think that it means something else, as in "Serial Killer". Seriously? If a high school student can't tell the difference between cereal and serial, then maybe that student should go back a few grades...

I will say though; that is some great photo editing skills and a lot of hours.
 
Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
Sounds like your school administration was as stupid as mine.

I wore a shirt to school that said "Roast Beef" and had a cartoon of a cow laying on a beach towel getting a suntan. I was told is was offensive because the udders could be viewed as penises.

REALLY?

Had to go the rest of the day with electrical tape over the udders. The next day I wore a shirt with a bunch of sexual positions on it, but I covered them all up with tape before school LOL.
 
N

nidding

Senior Member
ajh86 said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. They should have reminding the students a couple days before hand, maybe even providing them a letter to remind them of the schools policy.
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I remember when I was in High School. I went to school one day wearing a t-shirt that said "Cereal Killer". (Yes cereal, as in the food) and I was told to either turn it inside out or the school would provide me with a sweater to put over it. I asked what was wrong with it because other kids had graphic type shirts on as well. I was told that some students may mis-interpret the wording and think that it means something else, as in "Serial Killer". Seriously? If a high school student can't tell the difference between cereal and serial, then maybe that student should go back a few grades...

I will say though; that is some great photo editing skills and a lot of hours.
Click to expand...
Was it a Green Jellö shirt? :D
 
M

Moab Man

Senior Member
You have to understand Utah is a different world. I am not Mormon and have been looked down upon for having only one child instead of 4, 5, 6+. My child was also told she could not play with the neighborhood kids because she is not Mormon. I have witnessed children get written up in school for saying "Oh my God!" Which depending on where your from it may be an issue or it may not be, but that is a religious point of view put upon children that may or may not be of the same religion.

My point, Utah marches to a different drummer that is a few beats off from the rest of the country. What is deemed "immodest" here is often ridiculously normal and leaves you scratching your head.

Yes, I do live here in Utah (military retiree from Detroit), and there is a lot of great things about living here, but as my Mormon friend recently found out when he moved out of Utah... it is a different world outside of Utah than it is in Utah. With that said, I don't expect that what these ladies were wearing would have even caught a second glance outside of Utah. Heck, my wife ran into this same dress code garbage wearing a simple v-neck (showing nothing as she is well aware of the uptightness here and she is a school teacher) and the college where she was attending a conference tried to tell her she was in violation of their dress code that did not apply to her or the conference because it was a v-neck.

It's different here.
 
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