<p>At our district, a few students in the 2008 graduating class wrote some “inside joke” comments about a faculty member in their senior yearbook profiles. This was very hurtful to the faculty member (understandable!), and the comments were manually blacked out of each and every copy of the yearbook that was distributed.</p>
<p>Problem is - as a result, D and the rest of her senior (2009) classmates will not have the opportunity to write yearbook profiles this year, as this has been banned by the school because of the incident. Gee, talk about punishing the wrong people! </p>
<p>Now I have always enjoyed going back (nowadays WAY back!) to my senior yearbook to read classmates’ profiles, especially around reunion time, in fact, it serves as a great memory jogger in some cases should I run into said people, since my mind fails me more often than I would like. Other parents have shared my opinion that it is sad that my D and her classmates will not have that opportunity, so I am wondering how they can put together a low-cost creative alternative…perhaps having everyone submit the usual clean profiles, typing them all in and printing them out in a separate booklet…they can even charge a low fee to cover expenses and forward any extra proceeds to charity or the class gift…just trying to make lemonade out of a lemon here, any other ideas out there?</p>
<p>There might be just as much trouble with your suggested alternative. Kids have a way of writing things that outsiders can’t understand but that can be insulting or obscene or otherwise objectionable. Would it really be better to have those things in a booklet than in the yearbook?</p>
<p>Ruining yearbooks through unwise choices has a long history. My own high school class (in 1972) had this problem. One of the students’ parents had a private plane and offered to fly low over the school, with all the students outside, to take an aerial photo for the yearbook. The photo was taken (and used), but part of it had to be blacked out because a group of students took it upon themselves to arrange their bodies so that they spelled out an obscene phrase. </p>
<p>Our small high school (grad class of 80) put together a year book supplement back when I graduated. It had photos from the latter half of the year and the college acceptance list. It was semi-professional and I think officially sanctioned. It didn’t have a cover, but it was nicely printed. We also had a mimeographed stapled set of silly stuff. I mostly remember where we bequeathed teachers and fellow students things they needed. (Like hair dye for a teacher who had a funny patch of white hair, or an alarm clock for a perpetually oversleeping student.) You run the risk that if you print something unofficial it will get hijacked and your students will get into even bigger trouble than the yearbook caused.</p>
<p>We print up “unofficial” memory books for school teams all the time.
Just need someone to organize, print and have kids come and pick up. We use a local printer. A book of 60+ color pages run app. $20. I bet you could run senior ads/profiles in b&w for much less. Why would it get hijacked if it is outside of school? And why would they get in trouble? Just have a responsible person proof it and don’t slander/libel.</p>
<p>I had to look up “yearbook profile” - I’ve never seen one. My HS and my kid’s HS show an activities list. I did find one website with profiles and updates - I thought that was kind of nice.</p>
<p>What bugs me is the HS newspaper piece showing Senior plans. They must ask only some kids for their plans, as they only show about 1/4 of the class.</p>