High School Photoshops Pics Of 80 Girls And Parents Are Mad
I’m not a huge feminist by any means, but this is just wrong on so many levels! Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida has come under the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The school has changed the yearbook and covered up all traces of girls’ cleavage.
A reporter named Ben Ryan of Action News Jax broke the story on Twitter. . According to the school district, girls’ yearbook photos must follow dress code guidelines and they deemed the 80 pictures inappropriate. Meanwhile, the boys’ pictures from the swim team and other sports photos were left unedited.
I understand schools have a dress code, but this is ridiculous. When you see the pictures, the girls aren’t wearing anything racy or too revealing.
When I was about 9 years old, my mom took me bra shopping. I developed early, which was not fun. People would pick on me at school. I was a tomboy and I wasn’t a fan of having big breasts so early. This was in the 1970’s and girls didn’t “grow up” as quickly as they seem to do now. In the 6th grade I was diagnosed with scoliosis and I swear I ended up with it because I walked hunched over for years trying to hide my breasts. I was embarrassed so I tried to cover them up as much as possible. Now, I’m not 100% sure that’s why but I’m sure my hunching didn’t help!
I can’t say that developing early made me self-conscious about my body but I can tell you it played a part. I was anorexic as a teen and even now, have food issues. Heck I’m 51 years old and I’m still self-conscious at times. As a kid and as a young teen there were enough body image issues. I can’t imagine how I’d have felt if someone altered a pic of mine.
You know I hate the term “shamed” but that’s what this is! Female students are not only upset that their pictures were altered, and not well, but also because there’s an obvious double standard for boys and girls. I totally understand why so many parents are upset. If it was my kid, I’d be pissed off too!
In-depth info on the story is here if you’d like to read more. One of the student’s pics is below….what do you think?
This is a before and after yearbook photo taken of Bartram Trail 9th grade high school student, Riley O’Keefe.
— Ben Ryan (@BenRyanANJax) May 20, 2021
She says it was deemed inappropriate by the school and photoshopped in the printed edition.
Parents and students are now asking for a major change.@ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/f8MjkZMDOw
