YEARBOOK CONTROVERESIES

With thanks to Mustang Bobby of Miami-based blogger Bark Bark Woof Woof for the heads up on this story:

Part of the excitment that comes at the end of another school year is getting the long awaited yearbook for one to look back at all the memories of the term just past. I was only able to purchase one during my high school days long past, but on occasion I will still glance through the pictures and remember those mostly wonderful times and the great friends long gone.

Unfortunately, in several cases across South Florida this year, pages are being cut out, stickers placed over pictures, and students have been suspended for allegedly flashing gang signs in pictures taken for yearbooks.

Three students at Miami Springs Senior High School in Dade County --- including one senior --- were suspended six days before the end of the term for making what administrators say could have been interpeted as gang signals in their varsity baseball team picture taken for the school's sports yearbook.

The trio used hand signals to depict the number '305', and say that it was meant to show their love for local Cuban rapper Pitbull, who uses the number to depict Miami-Dade County (it is the area's original telephone area code) as well as his son's birthdate (3/05). Click here to view the picture in question, courtesy of WTVJ-NBC6.

The students, one of whom has a grade point average of 3.7, and their parents were scheduled to meet with Principal Douglas Rodriguez Wednesday morning. Rodriguez was scheduled to make a decision afterwards as to wheather the suspensions will stand.

Also, the Palm Beach Post is reporting that the mother of a Boynton Beach Community High School senior is asking for a recall of it's yearbooks after it pictured her son, who was noted as "Most Whipped" of his class, in a dog collar and leash being held by his then-girlfriend. The title means that his girlfriend had the young man "wrapped around her finger"...to use an old expression.

The 19 year old young man said that the pose was his idea, but his mother objects because she said it reminded her of scenes in the miniseries Roots which showed manacled slaves. Over 240 copies of the yearbook had been distributed, and stickers were used to cover the artwork on the other nearly 500 copies.

And in Bonita Springs, administrators at the middle school there literally cut out pages from the yearbook showing two students flashing gang signs and a joke about another student's weight. The students whose pictures were edited out had left the school.

IMHO, the Miami Springs instance was more than likely one of administrators going overboard. A few questions, and a reference to the school's resource officer --- part of whose job is to keep up with any gang activity or refer any questions to the appropriate collegues within the police department --- would probably cleared up the matter without further action. Not every student is in a gang, trying to revolt against authority, or participating in a conspiracy against the social order...which is the attitude that many school administrators seem to take. The students, however, are not without fault, and should have known that in a time when schools are battling gang influences such a consequence was imminent.

The "Most Whipped" picture is simply poor taste and should have never been allowed in the yearbook. While it was meant to be humourous, it was obvious that some people would have seen it in a different light, especially since the student wearing the collar was an African-American and his girlfriend at the time, who was holding the leash, was white.

And the middle school pictures was another case of poor judgement by the advisor.