<p>When <em>I</em> went to high school at a very upscale public in Austin, TX, the val and sal were each given a HUGE, glossy color page!! Academic scholarships were given separate and EXTENSIVE coverage, and the teachers selected a “Who’s Who” for <em>EXTREMELY</em> exceptional students who typically displayed many and varied abilities, interests, talents, and accomplishments. College choices were highlighted. When I compare this to my kids’ yearbook, I just have to shake my head…<em>sigh</em></p>
<p>I am of mixed mind over the inclusion of pregnant girls. (I see no reason to include piercings, tattoos, etc., except as incidental to pictures of the persons with them doing something other than showing off.) The problem with eliminating mention of pregnant girls is that the girls are still girls, still members of the school community, and their inclusion may well encourage them to stay in school. Would it be okay if they were shown watching a football game? Or playing in the chess tournament? Or working in the school’s daycare center? (A local school has a daycare center for the children of faculty as well as students. If your kid receives care, you need to be there one hour/day, so faculty and students work together with the professional staff.)</p>
<p>I think the yearbook needs to be about the school, not the news, and show the school and its community, warts and all. But it’s difficult to know how to do that, and I’m glad I’m not the yearbook advisor.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree that context is absolutely crucial…so I’m with ya on that.</p>
<p>With respect the Kent State feature in the award winning yearbook, it was in context, which is why it won awards and why it was sitting on the shelf in the yearbook office at the high school of a small town in the Rio Grande Valley. I guess my point is social issues that affect our teens are important to them and a yearbook serves it’s true purpose years from now when these teens are grown and can look back at a snapshot of what their life was like when they were in high school. That includes Mr. and Miss WhateverHS, and the football team, the winners of math awards and athletic awards, thespians and Nat’l Merit Scholars, the guys with tatts who hung out in the art room as well as the jocks who stripped their shirts and painted their faces at the pep rallies…and what was good and bad, easy and difficult about the world they lived in at that time. </p>
<p>At our school, the reaction was so severe, that an objective, award winning layout on Kent State (or say… Iraq) would be forbidden.</p>
<p>“There was a full, glossy page of coverage of the pregnant students”</p>
<p>that is very different from just having them like everyone else in the year book…if one of the pregnant girls was a winner of some award or something, sure, post the picture, but dont gather them all up and go look, ain’t this like the best thing!!!</p>
<p>Sure, if they were doing activities, etc, of course you can use the pictures, to do otherwise is not fair but as I said to rally them all up, with a special section, I think that was just not a good idea</p>
<p>Imagine that that page took the place of some other worthy students activities, and getting pregnant, sorry, is not a school activity</p>
<p>btw…lol…I have those 70’s era yearbooks, which I had under lock and key until my daughter whipped them out for her yearbook mates to analyze/mock. What was up with the whole toe sock thing is what I wanna know.</p>
<p>ldmom – I think it’s great to include a variety of student activities, i.e. math club, debate or whatever. The other issues you mention – cutting, abuse, teen sexuality – are certainly worthy of discussion and debate, but I still don’t think that they belong in a yearbook. JMHO.</p>
Oh, ABSOLUTELY. That would be fine. If the pregnant girl were participating in some noteworthy activity or had been named an NMF or some other such thing, the pregnancy would not be the HIGHLIGHT of the article but rather secondary to it. What I have an issue with is making PREGNANCY in and of itself a noteworthy event. It has nothing to do with high school achievement except in the way that it negatively impacts it.</p>
<p>my d is on yearbook, this will be her second year. Last year there was much debate on how to handle the situation of a student who committed suicide…some wanted it not mentioned at all, others wanted a full page, what to do with her picture in the row, etc it was a very touchy subject. Some wanted a mention of how she died, etc.</p>
<p>What was decided was a slightly larger picture of the student, with a message of “in loving memory”</p>
<p>The suicide was reported in the school paper, with contact information for suicide hotlines, etc. It was done this way to get the information out, it was a very balanced fair piece with an obituary of the student, but without the “glorfication” of the act of suicide. My D was going to go to the service but she knew many kids were going to be “seen”, etc. My D, she mourned in her own way, with a very sweet letter to the girl’s family.</p>
<p>Sorry for the veering off course, but there is a way to handle things without brushing them under the rug, creating martyrs, or glorifying bad life choices, while at the same time taking about the issues, and hopefully helping others at the same time</p>
<p>navel, nose, tongue, and eyebrow piercings any day!!!</p>
<p>those at least are all piercings that you can see.
When my older D was a freshman in college, she accompanied a friend who was writing an article about “body piercings” with photos!, for the school newspaper.
YOUCH</p>
<p>Berurah–This is absolutely fascinating to me. I am shaking my head! I would not have expected this in Kansas. LOL. What an interesting town you live in! I have not seen anything like that out here in liberal CA. But I will definitely take a closer look at my kids’ yearbooks after reading this.</p>
<p>Berurah, I think you nailed it: if the “questionable” part of the content is secondary, then I think it’s okay. That might be a way to formulate guidelines for the yearbook staff.</p>
<p>I wonder what message they were trying to send by creating the layout of the pregnant teens…were the kids ever asked, what is the point you are making…is this the Preggers Club or what? </p>
<p>It is almost like a bunch of kids showing up in shop lifted clothes and modeling them at a school fashion show…</p>
That’s the question I have as well. If it’s just a group photo of “our classmates who got knocked up” then it’s very weird and inappropriate. On the other hand, if it’s a support group of girls who have chosen not to have abortions and are seeing this thing through by preparing together for childbirth/adoption with an advisor, maybe it’s not such a bad thing. As an analogy, what if the school has an AA group consisting of kids who have acknowledged a drinking problem and are working to steer their way out of it. If they’re proud of what they’ve done, is it a bad thing to give them a spot in a yearbook along with other student groups? Of course, I don’t know what the situation at Berurah’s school is, and context is everything.</p>
<p>We also had one-page pictures of the “Top Ten” students in our school yearbook back in '69. We also had “most popular” and “most handsome” which my kids don’t have going on today.</p>
<p>I think our school gives the yearbook kids too much control. I went round and round one year as my sophomore daughter was TOTALLY left out of the year book because of a “mean girl” on yearbook staff. Not even a class individual picture. The school said there was nothing they could do.</p>
<p>S’s HS yearbook the last few years has been total silliness, mainly verbage with candid photos where you can barely see students’ faces. The athletes, choir and extracurricular activities are all found at the back of the book with tiny 2x2 photos.</p>
<p>At least our yearbooks haven’t zeroed in on the pregnant girls - yet.</p>