<p>I agree with the school’s decision.</p>
<p>For the record, I don’t agree on principle.</p>
<p>They had said only pets allowed, along with other articles. I would hope they would say no to a gun or Mein Kampf also. No one is shaming the girl, but no one wants to celebrate teen pregnancy also.</p>
<p>This could have been handled more intelligently long before now (but then we wouldn’t be discussing it, would we?). The school could have set parameters in advance, detailing specifically what items or people are allowed in graduation pictures. Some posts above suggest that the school rules state “no family members.”</p>
<p>If family members are allowed in pictures - well, there’s no way that the baby isn’t the mom’s family member, so that should allow it. If the rule is no family members - well, then it shouldn’t be allowed. But in that case, it shouldn’t be allowed because no family members are in graduation portraits, not because the picture “promotes teen pregnancy.” I don’t think it does promote teen pregnancy - I think it celebrates the grad’s achievement. But the “no family members” rule probably disappointed many people in the past, and in fairness to all, the same rule should apply.</p>
<p>When did photos have to be submitted? This didn’t happen yesterday. If the school or yearbook advisor had a problem with a mom and baby picture, why not work it out long in advance and perhaps seek a compromise, instead of pulling the picture from the yearbook?</p>
<p>As long as MTV flacks its “Teen Mom” series in every conceivable way, and as long as its “stars” are endlessly covered in the mainstream media and blogosphere, we don’t need to worry about this school’s yearbook promoting teen pregnancy. The pros are on it.</p>
<p>We can’t control MTV. Doesn’t mean schools shouldn’t try to set a good example. Good lord if schools allowed everything on MTV, it would be a disaster. As to whether the photo promotes teen pregnancy, I think it does. It shows the adorable little baby. Who wouldn’t want one? It shows a mom who managed to graduate on time (or early). Very few do. Its unrealistic.</p>
<p>@kayf
But teenage girls see adorable babies everyday. They have cute baby cousins and cut baby neighbors that they babysit and cute babies that they see in public. Will that make them want babies too?
You can’t ignore the bad things that happen and try to shield your child from bad influences. You have to show them to learn from the poor decisions that others make. Yes, this girl graduated high school. But also how much sleep does she get each night? How often does she get to hang out with her friends? How many teenage boys want to date a girl with a baby? If parents have the discussion about teen pregnancy with their kids and tell them how much it can negatively affect their lives, it could do wonders. I like to watch teen mom and I just don’t see the glamour that all the critics claim. What’s glamorous about your friends going to their dream university and you can’t? Whats glamorous about custody battles, being a single mom, having a hard time finding someone that wants to date you AND be a step parent to your child, and not being able to be free and have no responsibilities? I just don’t understand.
** I’m not attacking your opinion. I just am curious to further understand your point of view. I completely respect your opinion.</p>
<p>Photoshop to the rescue…</p>
<p>So it shows a girl who beat the odds and it’s a bad thing because other girls will want to be like her?? Would it be better if she was in a photo with dirty clothes, a WIC voucher, bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and other more “typical” teen mom attributes? It’s only ok to show a teen mom at all if she’s shown as a failure?? </p>
<p>I don’t know a single teen girl who thinks that the Teen Mom show glorifies anything. Drugs, domestic violence, loss of custody and jail, maybe. They all shake their heads at these girls, no matter what their own upbringing has been. </p>
<p>FWIW, teen pregnancy has gone down every year in every ethnic group for a decade, and is way down from its high point in the 90’s (See CDC). That doesn’t mean it’s not happening-it is, and it’s more common in the less educated states, and in certain ethnic groups. And the effects ARE generally negative. But if a photo is supposed to be about the “most important thing” to you, SHOULDN’T it be your child? Again, I think it’s better the little girl than pretty much anything else.</p>
<p>I’m confused about what they’re going for with these pictures and I honestly have no idea what I would have chosen to be photographed with. Was my flute my biggest accomplishment? I probably would have just been photographed by myself or skipped the whole thing. Even many EC’s don’t easily lend themselves to having objects to be photographed with.</p>
<p>Of course somebody who has been raising a child that she loves over the past year would find that her biggest accomplishment. I’d imagine that this might also have limited her EC involvement and made them seem kind of superficial. What’s a bigger accomplishment, being in band for high school or starting to raise a child? She probably couldn’t imagine picking anything else.</p>
<p>And I love my pets but in most cases I don’t see a pet as an accomplishment.</p>
<p>An interesting thing happened at my kids’ school. There are always a few girls who are pregnant or already mothers. Most of them are not very well-known, or didn’t have the greatest reputations to begin with. And while nobody ever says it out loud, the attitude toward them is “how stupid” and they’re generally looked down on. However, when a “nice girl” from a “good family” got pregnant a few years back, it was a whole different story. She was a typical CC kid - top student, involved in school, and well-liked by everyone. Boyfriend/father was a popular star athlete. They decided to have the baby and give it up for adoption… and they were pretty much treated like heroes by the school and community. Not stupid or irresponsible, as the other teen moms were viewed, but great kids who made a mistake and took responsibility for their actions. Just bad luck - it could happen to anyone! She had the baby junior year, and senior year she was elected class president, prom queen, and voted “most admired.” It was really interesting and thought provoking to see how differently they were viewed compared to other students in the same situation.</p>
<p>I don’t advocate showing teen mom as a loser in dirty clothes, I just don’t think mom/baby pictures belong in HS Yearbook. Nor do I think dad/baby pictures belong.</p>
<p>I think the whole idea of being photographed with something that represents a “significant accomplishment” is goofy. I don’t know what I would have done with that in HS. My most time-consuming EC, and one I had a lot of success with, was debate club. Doesn’t really lend itself to photographs. My son’s is choir–I guess he could be photographed in his choir robes or something but honestly I don’t think he’d want to. Yearbooks have pictures of clubs and activities–that’s the place for kids to be pictured with their accomplishments. And if your start including non-school accomplishments in the pictures you just end up with things like this.</p>
<p>I think they had a strange setup for the pictures and then they handled this badly. I can understand their concerns (even though I don’t entirely agree that the baby shouldn’t be in the picture). But really, they’d have done much better to just live with it this year and next year make it more clear what is or isn’t allowed–or just do standard portraits without pets, props, or family members.</p>
<p>Makes me long for the boring senior pictures my school had where everyone looked the same.</p>
<p>1 or 2 music, I agree with you. I have to wonder if the “include an object” approach is to avoid hurting feelings of kids who were not in clubs, theatre, sports whatever. The kids with the ECs have those under their names in my DDs yearbook. If the kid didn’t do anything, it would just be their name.</p>
<p>gotta wonder what the point of this thread is…</p>
<p>but speaking of photos, here’s a cute one:</p>
<p>[World?s</a> Top 10 Happiest Countries](<a href=“http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/wellness-and-renewal/photos/worlds-top-10-happiest-countries?affiliate=blocker&omnisource=SEM&c1=Slideshow_Computer&c2=Outbrain&c3=Slideshow&c4=World?s-Top-10-Happiest-Countries]World?s”>http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/wellness-and-renewal/photos/worlds-top-10-happiest-countries?affiliate=blocker&omnisource=SEM&c1=Slideshow_Computer&c2=Outbrain&c3=Slideshow&c4=World?s-Top-10-Happiest-Countries)</p>
<p>C’mon, a yellow pullover with a white top. What was the student thinking?</p>
<p>" But if a photo is supposed to be about the “most important thing” to you, SHOULDN’T it be your child?"</p>
<p>That pretty much sums it up for me.</p>
<p>Mini – the school directions said no family members, only objects or pets. So I guess she could have held a diaper and bottle.</p>
<p>I wonder how they would have reacted to that. :)</p>
<p>I think the school should rethink their policy of the yearbook photos. Uniform is okay when it comes to the photos. I don’t think it should be punished or given an opportunity to glorify the situation either . Teens are easily influenced as we all know as parents. Seeing this picture in a yearbook might just make a young girl think " she did it and she is doing great, I can do it too " . Teen pregnancy should stop before it’s even a gleam in someone’s eye, not after the fact. This is where we fail as a nation IMO.</p>
<p>@Jea828…how unusual that situation must’ve been and brave decision for both of the young parents.</p>