Utah High School's Yearbook Photo Editing Angers Female Students

A group of female students are outraged that their Utah high school digitally edited their photographs in the 2014 yearbook for apparently violating a dress code and failed to apply that policy to other apparent violators.

Intensifying the controversy are comments from the leader of the Rape Recovery Center in Salt Lake City, who called for a school district investigation Thursday into the clothing policy, which she says is an example of a culture that shames girls and women.

School leaders stood by the dress code Thursday but admitted inconsistency in the digital editing, for which the superintendent apologized.

Utah High School's Yearbook Photo Editing Angers Female Students

You really need to watch the video to see the hack job they did on the girls' photos. Looks like they used MS paint and drew on sleeves and little dicky-type fronts to their "low cut" tees. One girls sleeves didn't even match her top!

Now, if it was done to ALL the photos of the dress code "violators" that's one thing...But, of course they didn't! Like one girl says in the video "it's like they drew names out of a hat!"

Yearbooks run close to $100 and these girls will forever be memorialized with these ridiculous photo edits. The school claims they hung "huge signs" stating the dress code would be enforced, but the girls say that had they known they would do this, they would have changed or had retakes done.

When is enough, enough? When will this kind of madness end?

a reply to: lovebeck

Well I totally understand being upset about this..........

But lets ask an honest question.......

Whose fault was it really.........they knew they were violating the dress code correct? They admitted that......

I dont agree at all with what was done with the pictures..........

But in the end, when unfortunate things happen because of choices we consciously make , especially when we know its against the rules.........we can blame only our selves

Big deal, It's a high school photo. Hardly anything life shattering. If this is their biggest problem, they're lucky.

#First world problems

The way I read it is that they knew they violated the code, showed up that way anyway and now want to complain.

Bad behavior should not be encouraged, regardless of the decision to handle it in tasteless manner. Both sides were wrong.

If their parents encourage them to push this further, then their parents are children themselves and need some parenting training IMO.

a reply to: lovebeck

I watched half the video. Its not like yhe discriminated based on looks. I think they just got the more glaring examples. I cant believe that the sleeveless shirt was a big deal or even banned it wasnt skimpy.

This is what I'd call nonf*****gnews.

Lame on everyone's part.

Should have not doctored photos and used a blank for the violators. Kinda creepy PS-ing yearbook photos of students.

In my experience, girls broke dress code frequently. Not just on picture day. Seems a double standard of sorts if they're allowed to break it daily, but edited for the yearbook.

Really the whole story is stupid.

Actually this is a good way to abolish westernized-styles, the children shouldn't be wearing forbidden clothing that evokes beauty and elegance. No more individuality!!! Hail the supreme school leader with photoshop!!!

If the school has rules, it has rules. The girls should have dressed to meet the rules. Schools have rights to have dresscodes. They could have just omitted the girls pictures.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask
If it was me, I would have just made their yearbook photos floating heads

a reply to: lovebeck

Seems rather ridiculous considering what they were wearing wasn't really offensive. I would like to know how much extra the school had to pay to photo edit these photographs. Sounds like a waste of tax payers money to me. If what these girls were wearing was that bad, they should come and visit our high school! We have a uniform policy, but you would never know it! lol. Too many kids are defiant today, and it's hopeless to try to enforce it. What's really important, is they attend school.

(Self Snip)

Sorry.... Audio wasn't working for me at first.. My bad...

But for real though - what high school girl ever likes her year book pictures? Anyone?

The girls admitted they knew the dress code. A large sign was put up on picture day near the photographers that said pictures may be edited. I don't think the girls were singled out, I think they accidentally missed a few.

Bottom line....their fault. If they want nice pictures done with clothing of their choice they need to hire someone to do it.

Didn't read the op article as I read an article yesterday and watched an interview with the girls on the news. They seem like some spoiled girls who are throwing a hissy fit and their parents are letting them.

a reply to: GogoVicMorrow
My little cuz got suspended for wearing jean shorts this year lol. They said it distracted the male teachers too much. It wasn't even daisy dukes, or tight shorts or anything.

I do not place all of the blame on the school. Granted however that the school's actions were probably not the best solution to the problem. They should have never allowed anyone violating the dress code to take pictures. I was expecting a horrendous job, and that was not horrendous by any means. A better job could have been done, but seriously, nobody would have even been able to tell if no one had said anything. One looked kind of bad, but the others, from what I saw, were fine.

School totally at fault and should be sued or forced to reprint with original pics.

Of all the pictures they posted of the before and after. All of the before were tasteful and not sexual and the edited ones were overdone and ridiculous.

Totally stupid school decision. If I had a daughter there and this was the outcome that school would be ruined and I'd make sure someone was fired.

ridiculous.

This is what I would have done.

Informed parents of those that were to be photoshopped that they could submit a different photo for approval within a given time frame and that if an appropriate photo was not submitted within that that time frame the girl would not have her photo in the yearbook.

Even if there were time constraints people could go out, get a disposable camera and snap a pic within a day or two to submit. Yeah, may not look as good as a pro, but it would be something and less insulting.

a reply to: lovebeck

Well, mixed reaction here. They should have been consistent, and edited all that were against the dress code. Also, the edits were tacky, amateur, and beyond ridiculous. Sleeves on a sleeveless top? Why? Adjusting a neckline that exposes nothing? Why? What they adjusted would have been acceptable to my HS dress code, which was pretty limited in some ways. Seems theirs is perhaps a bit overboard. I am all for decent clothing on young women, mind you, but there are limits.

All that said, it's admitted that these girls knew they were violating the dress code, and they did it anyway. The sign was posted, and it seems clear the policy was known so it seems like they simply chose to ignore it, and then complain after the fact. A better solution would be to appeal the dress code beforehand, and to obey any code in place for the pictures.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

Then why didn't the school photoshop ALL the dress code violators?

Like another poster said, they could've just put a blank in or informed them and let them do a retake.

I'd be ticked off too if I spent $100 or so bucks on a yearbook and seen my photo like that. They, I don't believe, did not edit the actual photos they ordered, just the yearbook photos...