Cropping out choices

Imagine finally receiving your high school yearbook only to find your school had digitally altered your photo because it was seen as “inappropriate.”

This was recently the case for high school students in Utah.

When Wasatch High School released its yearbook, students were shocked to see the yearbook staff had made changes to the appearance of several people.

V-neck T-shirts were given necklines. Tank tops were turned into T-shirts. Tattoos were removed.

Many students claimed they had worn these outfits to school before without violating the dress code, but they were still edited for the yearbook in order to promote “modesty.”

The photo editing wasn’t expected, and it caused frustration for many students.
Being told their picture wasn’t “modest” or was “unacceptable” for the yearbook embarrassed some.

But the thing is, they are high school students, which means they don’t have a say in the matter.

If their school says their tattoo shouldn’t be in a yearbook, guess what — it’s not going to be in the yearbook.

Even though high school is a time when teenagers are preparing for the adult world, they don’t have many rights within school grounds.

They are required to do what the administration tells them, or else they suffer the consequences.

What’s so bad about this lack of autonomy is it all changes when they get out and go to college or work.

In high school, many students aren’t even allowed to wear flip flops, but when they get to college they are free to run around barefoot if they so please.

Instead of making it a gradual transition into the freedom of college, high schools keep a tight lock on their students and make almost all choices for them.

This can lead to whiplash when students suddenly have all this power and no wisdom in channeling it.

Many schools see their students as children who aren’t able to make decisions.
But they’ll be making plenty of life-altering decisions soon.

High schools can still tell students what to wear, what to say, what to read and, apparently, what their photo in the yearbook will look like.

No matter how angry the students at Wasatch High School are about their photos being edited, they don’t have a say in the matter.

But maybe they should.

syrafter@indiana.edu
@sydraft