#YEARBOOK PHOTOS GIRLS WERE ALTERED HIDE CRACKED#
#YEARBOOK PHOTOS GIRLS WERE ALTERED HIDE CODE#

'I'm glad we were able to speak out about it,' Montoya said. The teens said their biggest concern is preventing such edits in future years. 'I think a lot of people are missing the point,' Westergard said, characterizing her daughter as a dedicated, responsible student. Sophomores Haylee Nielsen and Kimberly Montoya said they did not hear from officials, aside from a school-wide email acknowledging the alterations.īaum's mother said her daughter has had to endure comments on online news stories from people wondering what kind of 16-year-old would have a tattoo. 'I'm still kind of ticked that it happened,' she said Tuesday, adding she is turning her attention this week to a planned summer road trip with her sister and grandmother. Sophomore Rachel Russell, 16, said she received a phone call from the school's principal, who explained he was sorry for the ordeal. Other students say they have not received an apology but are eager to move past the ordeal and on with summer vacation, which began Friday. 'The high school yearbook staff did make some errors and were not consistent in how they were applied to student photos,' it reads, 'and the school apologizes for that inconsistency.' The district's statement pointed out that yearbook staffers warned students that clothing violating the school dress code, which adheres to modesty, might undergo digital touchups. It has an enrollment of about 1,700.īaum earlier said she planned to ask for a refund or a new yearbook with an unaltered photo, but she changed her mind at her mother's urging.Īt the very least, said Baum's mother, Bobbi Westergard, the doctored photos can remind the girls they spoke out against a policy that singled out some students.īaum said she and her mother met with a vice principal who told them he didn't want Baum to feel unwelcome at the school. Wasatch High School is in Heber City, about 40 miles from Salt Lake City. Half a dozen other girls noticed camisoles or sleeves added to their pictures.ĭistrict officials declined to comment Tuesday, pointing to their statement last week acknowledging error in doctoring pictures of some students but not others who were similarly dressed. She also found a high, square neckline drawn onto her black V-neck T-shirt. Last week, Baum discovered her collarbone tattoo reading 'I am enough the way I am' was lifted from her yearbook photo. There's not much that I can do about it now.' 'I was a little surprised, but for the most part I knew, if it was real or not, I would get an apology,' she said Monday evening. Wasatch High School administrators in recent days offered at least one student the chance to return her yearbook and get back her $50.īut sophomore Shelby Baum opted to keep the memento.

#YEARBOOK PHOTOS GIRLS WERE ALTERED HIDE CRACKED#

It is objectifying and sexualizing them.Some Utah high school students who cracked their yearbooks to find sleeves digitally added to their tank tops and a tattoo erased say school officials have apologized to them. It is teaching them that their bodies are somehow inappropriate. And forcing them to hide their bodies, particularly developing bodies, sends them a message that they should be ashamed and embarrassed of their anatomy.

#YEARBOOK PHOTOS GIRLS WERE ALTERED HIDE CODE#

DRESS CODE DEBACLE She thought she was doing the right thing and trying to be helpful and I think ultimately, though, it was a mistake.

Suzette Hackney, a columnist with USA Today, put it this way: “Newsflash: Teen girls have boobs. In some photographs, square blocks of garments the girls were wearing were copied and pasted haphazardly to cover shoulders or chests. The mother of another Bartram Trail student - one whose photo was clumsily altered with a chunk of her plaid shirt copied and pasted beneath her neck - said: “The school did a horrible job of protecting our children’s mental health by body-shaming.” She said it sends a message to young women that they “are not supposed to have agency over their sexuality” and can feed into body-image issues that lead to eating disorders and other problems. Long said she spoke with a colleague and concluded this girls-only photo altering was “another example of how women’s bodies are policed over men’s and from an early age.” Beth Long, a pediatric psychologist and the chief of behavioral health at Nemours Children’s Hospital.

Riley may be only 15, but her sentiments echo those of Dr. Regardless, Riley said the adults who decided to alter her appearance “need to recognize that it’s making girls feel ashamed of their bodies.”

Yearbook photos girls were altered hide