Portraits of female students at Wasatch County High School in Utah were altered without their knowledge for the school yearbook, a fact that only became known when the finished yearbooks arrived. Sleeves were added to some portraits, necklines were raised, and tattoos removed. The students cried foul, not so much about the Photoshoppery, but because the alterations seemed to target individuals arbitrarily. Not all sleeveless pictures were altered.
But educators said the students know the dress code and there was a sign warning them that their pictures may be edited. However, the Wasatch County Superintendent admits the school erred in not applying the same rules to each student.
“We only apologize in the sense that we want to be more consistent with what we`re trying to do in that sense we can help kids better prepare for their future by knowing how to dress appropriately for things,” said Terry E. Shoemaker, who is the superintendent of schools for the Wasatch County School District.
This would lead a person to wonder why students were allowed to have the pictures made at all if they were violating a school dress code. There was no mention of whether any male students’ pictures were altered. Fox 13 has a news report and a photo gallery. -via Buzzfeed
Photoshopping seems like a heck of a lot of extra work for no reason. And produced spectacularly bad publicity on top of it.
Photoshopping out the exposed skin is just . . . a weird way to handle the problem.
However, when a kid shows up at school in violation of the dress code, they send them home to change. Even if it's picture day.