Flash or Flesh Dispute in Yearbook Photo
In this story a young lady who admits to not wearing undergarments on photo day is upset. Did she accidentally flash flesh in her photo or is it merely a shadow as the school contends. Or was it NOT an accident? She is sitting in the front row in a well accessorized outfit, holding a head on a stick.
One thing is for sure, her mother will not SHUT UP. It’s a special sort of thoughtful mom who makes a lot of noise in the local media about the potential possible publication of her daughter’s privates, (or shadow as the administration contends.) What’s mom’s motivation?
If reader’s want to see an enlarged, un-blurred version of the shadow in question, click the READ MORE link.
In many but not all web images the young lady is blurred out.
Revealing photo makes high school yearbook
Posted By: Erica Pitzi | 5/18/2009 | wtsp.com
This time of the school year is supposed to be fun for students, but for one Bay area girl, getting her yearbook has been horrifying. She says her private parts are on display in one class picture.
Click here to join a live discussion with local parents on MomsLikeMe.com about what they think should happen.
The school board responded, you can read our follow up story here.
Tampa, Florida – Page 219 of the brand new school yearbook is all the talk at Sickles High School in Citrus Park.
“There’s a picture of a girl in the club pages,” said senior Xander Morehouse.
The picture is of a student with, what some are saying, are her private parts showing.
And it is published in the school yearbook.
“When I saw it, I kind of flipped out. I was like, ‘Oh my God’, but I think that she’s probably like really horrified,” said sophomore Caitlin Darden.
10 Connects caught up with the 16-year-old in the photo – and her mother Jeanette. The young girl admits she didn’t wear underwear that day but says it was because she didn’t want her panty lines to show. She says she did not show herself like that on purpose, “Absolutely not. It is ridiculously embarrassing.”
The Sickles junior says she found out about the photo when seniors got their yearbooks on Monday. She has not been back to school since. “I started crying, I was freaking out and I didn’t know what to do. This is my junior year, it’s so important. I didn’t think I could go back to school knowing that everyone knew and had seen the picture.”
By the end of the day on Monday, more than two-hundred yearbooks had been passed out. Hundreds more went out Wednesday. With more than 2,500 students at Sickles, many more yearbooks are expected to go out over the next week.
“As a mom, I’m not going to make her go [to school],” said Jeanette. Mom wants the school to stop handing out the yearbooks, collect the ones that have gone out and reprint them without the photo.
“I don’t want any yearbooks out there that have this photo in it because it is going to follow her,” said Jeanette.
The Sickles principal called Jeannette while we were at her home. Jeanette said he suggested she not to talk to us because it would be exploiting the girl. “He [the principal] said he doesn’t want to exploit my daughter and here he is passing out yearbooks with her picture still in it and continuing to pass out pictures! It’s like don’t you get it?” exclaimed Jeanette.
Hillsborough County School District spokesperson Linda Cobbe told 10 Connects the picture is not revealing at all. “We don’t believe there is exposure in the yearbook…. It is a shadow.”
“Is it a shadow, is it not a shadow? My whole thing is, it doesn’t matter, the photo itself is damaging to a 16-year-old and should not have been published,” said Jeanette.
“All of the administrators are trying to downplay it and saying I should really laugh it off and come back to school but I’ve been humiliated,” said the junior who will not return to school for the rest of the year.
The district says there is a lengthy chain of command when it comes to approving and printing the yearbook – that includes faculty advisors and even an administrator.
Erica Pitzi, 10 Connects Reporter
That’s hot.
That is not hot. This girl is totally embarrassed. Although it was totally her own fault for not wearing underware. It also looks as though she knew what she was doing because of the way she is sitting and the other girls have their legs crossed. I would hope that is not the case. the school has a responsibility to protect the students and they let her slip through their fingers. Does anyone actually believe that the other students are going to forget about this for her to return to class. I hope that she can be bigger than the rest of the students and school administration and go on with her life. Mom needs to butt out and let her fight her own battle.