Help with yearbook discrimination

[Ricky2878]

TN: I was shown on yearbook as a joke on a page full of cars and trucks owned by students that attend my high school and a small picture of me at the bottom was a picture of me without consent and a qoute that shows false statements and the worst part i was not in the senior pictures sections please help . I am a senior awaiting to gradaute may 2016 attending xxx county high school

 

[quincy]

TN. I was shown on yearbook as a joke on a page full of cars and trucks owned by students that attend my high school and a small picture of me at the bottom was a picture of me without consent and a qoute that shows false statements and the worst part i was not in the senior pictures sections please help . I am a senior awaiting to gradaute may, 2016 attending XXX county high school

What were the false statements attributed to you?

Have you approached the faculty head of the yearbook staff about your appearance on the car-page, the derogatory statements attributed to you, and the fact that your senior picture was omitted from the senior-photo section?

 

[Ricky2878]

Reply:

It showed me riding a school bus stating that "xx enjoys riding the bus in the morning and sfternoon everyday" i was made fun of all day which made me a little upset.

 

[Zigner]

It showed me riding a school bus stating that "xx enjoys riding the bus in the morning and sfternoon everyday" i was made fun of all day which made me a little upset.

It will pass...in a few years you'll look back and laugh.

 

[quincy]

It showed me riding a school bus stating that "XX enjoys riding the bus in the morning and sfternoon everyday" i was made fun of all day which made me a little upset.

Ricky2878, please refrain from using your real name and other identifying information in your postings. Thank you.

What sort of bus were they saying you enjoyed riding? It could potentially make a difference from a defamation standpoint.

Students who work on putting together yearbooks are supposed to be supervised by a faculty staff member so that errors such as the ones involving you are corrected prior to print. Sometimes the errors that are made are innocent ones, and sometimes the errors are not so innocent and students can get suspended or expelled from school - and potentially sued.

There is currently a Muslim student who is questioning why her yearbook photo was labeled with the wrong name ("Isis" replaces her real first name). Other students have questioned why they were omitted from the yearbook photos and if their omission had anything to do with the fact they were gay or Jewish or unliked by the students on the staff. There have been Hitler quotes under names, and students labeled as "creepy" and other errors that have been shown to be intentional.

I would approach the faculty staff member who was supposed to be overseeing the student-staff. You might then need to, along with your parents, approach the administrative staff.

Mistakes happen but some mistakes should not happen if the students are properly supervised, the yearbook is properly edited, and the students allowed to be on staff are mature.

 

[Ohiogal]

Ricky2878, please refrain from using your real name and other identifying information in your postings. Thank you.

What sort of bus were they saying you enjoyed riding? It could potentially make a difference from a defamation standpoint.

Students who work on putting together yearbooks are supposed to be supervised by a faculty staff member so that errors such as the ones involving you are corrected prior to print. Sometimes the errors that are made are innocent ones, and sometimes the errors are not so innocent and students can get suspended or expelled from school - and potentially sued.

There is currently a Muslim student who is questioning why her yearbook photo was labeled with the wrong name ("Isis" replaces her real first name). Other students have questioned why they were omitted from the yearbook photos and if their omission had anything to do with the fact they were gay or Jewish or unliked by the students on the staff. There have been Hitler quotes under names, and students labeled as "creepy" and other errors that have been shown to be intentional.

I would approach the faculty staff member who was supposed to be overseeing the student-staff. You might then need to, along with your parents, approach the administrative staff.

Mistakes happen but some mistakes should not happen if the students are properly supervised, the yearbook is properly edited, and the students allowed to be on staff are mature.

Isis Phillips allegedly is a new student attending that school per news reports I saw today, but the Muslim student was MIS-identified as her. And yes, children are named Isis. The combination though....

 

[quincy]

Isis Phillips allegedly is a new student attending that school per news reports I saw today, but the Muslim student was MIS-identified as her. And yes, children are named Isis. The combination though....

Right. The yearbook that misidentified the Muslim student could have been simply an innocent mistake made by the yearbook staff or even by the publisher of the yearbook ... but it does seem a bit suspicious.

I know two years before I graduated from high school, the yearbook staff inserted a lot of comments that they thought were funny, about various students who were pictured. This did not go over very well in the school district and the guilty student-staff members were suspended and were not allowed to attend the graduation ceremony. The students were allowed to graduate, though, and this has not always been the fate for some students in other areas of the country. Depending on the content that makes it to print, students can be expelled, denied their diplomas, and sued.

 

[tranquility]

Isis Phillips allegedly is a new student attending that school per news reports I saw today, but the Muslim student was MIS-identified as her. And yes, children are named Isis. The combination though....

It would certainly be wonderful if the genesis of the error was completely innocent. My imagination pointed me more towards worse explanations.

 

[quincy]

I know that, with some yearbook errors (if only caught after publication), the school will order new pages to be inserted into the yearbooks and will destroy the offensive ones. It is harder to do this, obviously, if the books have already been distributed.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Ultimately, what is more important is what you do after high school rather than *anything* that appears in the yearbook.

Burn your copy and do something with your life - the best revenge is living well.

 

[quincy]

Ultimately, what is more important is what you do after high school rather than *anything* that appears in the yearbook.

Burn your copy and do something with your life - the best revenge is living well.

Although I sort of agree with what you say, it really depends on what was published in the yearbook and how it has affected the reputation of the one who was targeted.

I believe that those students who are found responsible for inserting into yearbooks any objectionable content about other students, if done on purpose, should be held accountable. Some of what has made it to print has been harmful enough to result in criminal actions (hate crimes) and lawsuits taken against the students responsible.

Unfortunately, the content of yearbooks CAN have such a damaging effect that burning a single copy will not reduce or eliminate the harm suffered by the student. Here, facts really matter.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Although I sort of agree with what you say, it really depends on what was published in the yearbook and how it has affected the reputation of the one who was targeted.

I believe that those students who are found responsible for inserting into yearbooks any objectionable content about other students, if done on purpose, should be held accountable. Some of what has made it to print has been harmful enough to result in criminal actions (hate crimes) and lawsuits taken against the students responsible.

Unfortunately, the content of yearbooks CAN have such a damaging effect that burning a single copy will not reduce or eliminate the harm suffered by the student. Here, facts really matter.

The facts that OP has presented thus far do not indicate such a damaging effect.

They poked fun at him for not having a car, that he "enjoys" riding a bus. Nothing wrong with riding a bus, so long as you aren't prone to motion sickness on them. Not defamatory. At least, no more defamatory than saying a Jesse Helms intern is "Most likely to be a Democrat" or that [Susie Q]'s boyfriend is "Most likely to be Mr. [Susie Q.]', which both appeared in my senior yearbook. (Rather tame compared to the previous year's nude photo.)

Please explain how not owning or driving a car is a protected class, akin to race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Although James Byrd happened to be walking home in Jasper TX when he encountered the men who would murder him, his death was ruled a hate crime because of his race, not his inability to legally drive.

(For the record, I had neither car nor license in high school.)

Furthermore, having your photo NOT appear on the seniors pages is hurtful, but unlikely to incite anyone to violence.

OP can have a hissy fit, but lets reserve talk of "discrimination" for those cases that extend beyond merely juvenile petty pranks.

 

[quincy]

The facts that OP has presented thus far do not indicate such a damaging effect.

They poked fun at him for not having a car, that he "enjoys" riding a bus. Nothing wrong with riding a bus, so long as you aren't prone to motion sickness on them. Not defamatory. At least, no more defamatory than saying a Jesse Helms intern is "Most likely to be a Democrat" or that [Susie Q]'s boyfriend is "Most likely to be Mr. [Susie Q.]', which both appeared in my senior yearbook. (Rather tame compared to the previous year's nude photo.)

Please explain how not owning or driving a car is a protected class, akin to race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Although James Byrd happened to be walking home in Jasper TX when he encountered the men who would murder him, his death was ruled a hate crime because of his race, not his inability to legally drive.

(For the record, I had neither car nor license in high school.)

Furthermore, having your photo NOT appear on the seniors pages is hurtful, but unlikely to incite anyone to violence.

OP can have a hissy fit, but lets reserve talk of "discrimination" for those cases that extend beyond merely juvenile petty pranks.

I agree that we don't know nearly enough to know if Ricky was defamed or if he was discriminated against.

Not owning or not driving a car is not necessarily all that was implied by the placement of his photo-with-comment among pictures of student's cars, though. And we don't know why his photo was omitted from the yearbook. We don't know enough about Ricky, Ricky's high school or the students in it to say if there is any legal issue to consider at all.

You can certainly reserve talk of discrimination and defamation if you want to until we have more facts. It would be nice for Ricky to return and add some facts, to see if there is anything more to his situation than the little he has provided. Right now, I think approaching the faculty member who supervised the yearbook staff would be a good first step, if Ricky is upset about what has appeared about him, and what has not appeared.


As a note: Many students spend a lot of money to have their senior picture(s) taken by a professional photographer, and students can pay quite a bit of money to purchase a yearbook with their senior photo in it.

 

[TigerD]

Right. The yearbook that misidentified the Muslim student could have been simply an innocent mistake made by the yearbook staff or even by the publisher of the yearbook ... but it does seem a bit suspicious.

I worked on a case a couple of years ago where the high school responsible for changing a person's name was charged with a felony. Ultimately, the case was dismissed, but it had to have disrupted the college application process.

TD

 

[quincy]

I worked on a case a couple of years ago where the high school responsible for changing a person's name was charged with a felony. Ultimately, the case was dismissed, but it had to have disrupted the college application process.

TD

Yearbook content has supported more than a few legal actions against those responsible for the content.

There was a student on a yearbook staff not too long ago who thought it would be funny to sneak a nude photo into the yearbook, and he faced several felony charges as a result.

In other words, I wish that Ricky's concerns could be dismissed easily but there are too many instances where students have been intentionally harmed by what has appeared. It will probably take a personal review of what has appeared in Ricky's yearbook to know if there is actionable harm. There probably has already been economic harm, if he paid to have his senior photo taken and included in the yearbook.