<p>I would guess that some schools moved away from mugshots that look exactly alike is that they are professional photos-and not all students can afford those. At my older D’s school they had several options, including sending in a homegrown photo, as long as it was a certain size so it would fit properly. There are also cultural issues and a simple “mugshot” as of old-all the same hair, all the same colors, all the same style, just leaves some kids out.</p>
<p>I don’t think it has anything to do with “rewarding everyone”. And why not change things up? Does everything have to be “the way it was” back when? “Back then” wasn’t always the best. I’m really glad, for example, that black girls are no longer expected to have perfectly straight hair in their photos and that “natural” hair is considered wrong.</p>
<p>my daughters school had the kids all wear the same over shoulder grad looking thing for seniors, and boys wore white dress shirts with ties, if they didn’t have a tie for forgot, they had shirts, as boys often forgot</p>
<p>the picture for the yearbook was free, but of course you could order over priced packages</p>
<p>so it was all pretty equal, what was nice about having that one picture was her skin looked great and she used if for app and ids when pictures were needed</p>
<p>im one for shaking things up, but i also see a benefit to creating an even playing field when it comes to certain things</p>
<p>we always had the photo at the school and kids were assigned times</p>
<p>in my public hs growing up we could wear what we wanted and hair anyway we wanted, but no do hickys for entertainment value</p>
<p>my quote was stupid, but at least my picture was classy</p>
<p>"I don’t see why it’s specifically the responsibility of the pro-life faction to support her. I’m staunchly pro-choice, and also an adoptive mom. Being pro-choice means that I will support women whichever choice they make, including parenting. "</p>
<p>I didn’t even begin to ask whether they had responsibility to do so. I asked a factual question as to whether, as those opposed to abortion, (forget the “pro-life” word), they actually did so, and, if you were opposed to abortion, whether you would do so. </p>
<p>How, concretely, have you “supported women” in whatever choice they make? (I’m not sure I know what that means?)</p>
<p>@mini: I’ve supported women who choose abortion, primarily through my vote, but also through financial support to organizations such as Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>I’ve supported women who choose adoption, by choosing to adopt in a state with laws that are respectful of the rights of first moms, and by celebrating and advocating for openness in adoption. </p>
<p>I’ve supported women who choose to parent by working with families of young children, and particularly young children with disabilities, in an urban environment. Teaching parenting skills, helping families access resources, and supporting young moms as they advocate for their children are some of the pieces of my job that I value the most. I’ve also hired a number of young parents, and work hard to support them by connecting them with college scholarships; allowing them flexibility in their work so they can juggle the demands of parenting, school and work; and helping them grow professionally so they’re ready for promotions etc . . . </p>
<p>I’ve supported young women who aren’t yet parents, by teaching comprehensive sex education to students in special education. </p>
<p>My dream is that when my son leaves for college, I’ll combine my passion for working with young children, with my passion for teaching parents, by becoming a foster mom to parenting teens.</p>
<p>Nrd, I agree. The Yearbook is for ALL the kids. The school has the right to enforce reasonable standards. Kids can post whatever they want on facebook.</p>
<p>I think the school has the right to set and enforce standards. I don’t have an issue if they choose to extend the “no family members” rule to include babies, and I don’t have an issue if they decide to allow babies. However, I think they had a responsibility to make that decision in a way that was supportive of the young woman and allowed her to express herself in her photo. If the photo was taken at school, then she should have been told on photo day that she couldn’t take it. If it’s one that she provided then they should have asked for another immediately. In either case, I think that, given notice, she could have figured out a “prop” that would have conveyed the same message. Perhaps she might have chosen to pose with a photo of her son, or with his teddy bear, or something else that symbolized the inspiration that he is for her. </p>
<p>I also think that the message that they’re disallowing the photo because somehow it celebrates teen pregnancy, rather than celebrating a young woman’s achievement, and the bond between a mother and her child, is ridiculous and offensive. I think that it’s highly unlikely that another young woman is going to see that picture and think “ooh, I’ll go get pregnant so I can have a cute picture in the yearbook”. On the other hand, I think that a struggling, parenting teen could easily see that picture and absorb the message that, with hard work, it’s possible to make it through school and build a better life for herself and her child.</p>
<p>Curious, I think that photos like this encourage the thinking that having babies while in HS is fine. No, I do not think that anyone sees the picture and says, ooh, so cute, I’ll have one. But it’s more like advertising, you see it in photos and even if subconsciously says, babies in HS, fine. This is why we do not allow advertisements for cigarettes. We don’t want to give the idea that smoking is right. Its not shaming anyone. Teen mom and Teen dad get their pictures in yearbook. But I think they should leave the babies home for the Yearbook pictures. Go back to the standard ones.</p>
<p>I pretty much think the opposite. I think that one of the factors that has lead to the reduction in teen pregnancies is the fact that we’re keeping parenting teens in our schools and our communities. It’s easy to have a glamorous view of pregnancy and teen motherhood when you don’t know anyone doing it. When the girl next to you in science class is running out of the classroom to throw up during the first trimester, or falling asleep in class a year later, or when the high school football star is dropping off the team to get a job to pay child support, or when both of them aren’t showing up at parties anymore, it’s harder to idealize. </p>
<p>I thinking that keeping pregnant and parenting teens in their own schools and communities, and providing resources to help them stay in school and graduate, is the right thing for young mothers and their babies, but I also think it has side benefits for the students around them.</p>
<p>This thread is quite deja vu from a number of years ago on CC (2006 and 2007)…a long, divisive thread on a similar case. But I guess a new crop of CC parents are here now to debate it once again.</p>
<p>Memphis, Tennessee About 90 students at Frayser High School are either pregnant, or have been recently…
Deborah Hester Harrison, who heads the organization, says Memphis teen pregnancy rate stands at between 15 and 20 percent, almost twice the national average.</p>
<p>In the Frayser zip code, the rate is about 26 percent. Harrison partly blames the media.</p>
<p>In some communities, girls who feel disaffected and relatively unloved, view pregnancy as an answer to their problems. Of course, when the cuteness phase wears off, then the real problems begin for an under-educated underemployed single teenage mother.</p>
<p>"I thinking that keeping pregnant and parenting teens in their own schools and communities, and providing resources to help them stay in school and graduate, is the right thing for young mothers and their babies, but I also think it has side benefits for the students around them. "</p>
<p>I think that if the school provides resources to keep parents in schools, it tells other students, that resources will be there if they want to have babies. Not a good message.</p>
<p>I am wondering why getting pregnant and having a baby is considered noteworthy at all, since doing so is quite easy for the vast majority of young women to “achieve.” Same with graduating from high school. (I get that a lot of kids don’t graduate; I don’t get why it is so hard for them to do so, or why doing so would be considered a noteworthy “achievement.”)</p>
<p>If the most significant things this young woman has achieved in her life are motherhood and a high school diploma, then okay, but I don’t feel a tremendous compulsion to celebrate for her for some reason. She is like most people. Is that worth celebrating?</p>
<p>The drop out rate for teen mothers is 60%, so no, she’s not like most people. Most people who face the challenges she’s faced don’t get to the point where she is now. </p>
<p>I’m also going to go out on a limb and say that most of the “achievements” that 17 year olds memorialize in their yearbook photos aren’t noteworthy. I imagine you’ll see a lot of kids making references to high school sports, and school plays, and hobbies. Very few of them are going to be holding nobel prizes or their latest bestseller.</p>
<p>Re post #114: I feel quite differently. Having and raising my children truly is the achievement I’m proudest of and, for me at least, the most significant thing I’ll ever do. I’m like most people, myself.</p>
<p>And if high school graduations aren’t worth celebrating/noteworthy, we could always dispense with the yearbooks altogether, and the graduation ceremonies as well, I suppose?</p>
<p>This is such a hot topic for so many. I am all over the place with this one. I agree with so many of you but it seems so contradictory to me. </p>
<p>I think fear ultimately plays a huge role in this. Fear that it will become acceptable, or contagious to other teens. Our teens. </p>
<p>I am not going to judge this girl or the school. My opinions are very erratic on this topic. I was raised “old school” and try to incorporate those morals with modern day morals. It’s not so easy. But… I think… if it were my daughter, I would encourage her to take her yearbook snapshot like everyone else. There will be plenty of opportunities to be a proud mommy. At least, IMHO, she could finish off HS like the rest of her peers with the “mugshot”, as so many of you stated. I might change my opinion again on this one tomorrow.</p>
<p>“I think that if the school provides resources to keep parents in schools, it tells other students, that resources will be there if they want to have babies. Not a good message.”</p>
<p>Of course not. We should just kick them out of school to fend for themselves. That’ll show 'em and their peers. We should kick them out of their homes, too. No one will want babies if they see their former classmates living on the streets, right? Why let these girls get a diploma and possibly higher education, when what they deserve is poverty, minimum wage work, if they can get it, and life like the losers they are??</p>
<p>Dear lord, are we really so hard-hearted that we would deny an education to teen mothers simply because they made a bad decision? Does anyone supporting this know how expensive infant care is and how much more likely a girl will stay in school if she has a place for her child there at school? How about a program to keep the DADS involved? Or job training? Or mental health or family support. </p>
<p>What these programs do is keep yet another generation from falling by the wayside, and in some cases, literally from starving or living in a cardboard box. I’ve met and talked with a number of teen moms, former and current, and not one of them had a child so they could get services at their school. The ones that USED these services are the ones who AREN’T on drugs or on the street or in abusive relationships, or in college. </p>