There is an interesting controversy out of Wasatch County, Utah where students were surprised when they received their yearbooks and found themselves wearing outfits that they never saw before. The Wasatch High School had altered photos of girls who had too much skin showing, though what was viewed as inappropriate by the local school officials is rather surprising.
Students say that there was no rhyme or reason to the alteration and that half of the girls with tank tops were edited while half were left alone. This includes two girls with identical tops. One was covered up and one was not.
The school however insisted that the girls were warned that outfits deemed inappropriate were subject to editing.
Terry E. Shoemaker, superintendent of schools for the Wasatch County School District, was defiant in the face of claims of arbitrary and conflicting censorship: “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.”
Dress codes have always intrigued me in schools and courts. We previously discussed how female lawyers are treated differently from male lawyers in dress codes. I often appear with women wearing open shirts or sweaters where the same choice by male lawyers would result in an expulsion or sanction. When it comes to students, a male wearing the equivalent to a tank top would likely be barred. It is an interesting cultural distinction.
The school’s position is that it is merely trying to teach proper decorum and dress rules. Others have pointed out that this is a deeply religious area. In either case, it appears to have been enforced rather arbitrarily and the question is whether schools should actively encourage (rather than actively enforce) such standards.
By the way, they might want to check out the pictures of a few of the Administrators and teachers for the next round of airbrushing (here and here). Indeed, in covering up shoulders of students, school officials might want to address another misguided female in Washington who appears not to have received the Wasatch School memo on proper dress for official photos:
Source: Fox8
Annie – frankly, there are no non-Mormon students at the school.
Again, isn’t this a public school? Why should non Mormon students be held to the same dress code as Mormon students?
Just for the record, the school district insists that this is about professional attire for the yearbook and has never referenced religious standards or expectations.
samantha:
” Still, you have no right whatsoever disrespecting religious freedoms of others. ”
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No one’s disrespecting their freedom just their crazy belief system which was, as you know, founded on the mystical musings of a convicted forger and thief. If you want to respect that, please be my guest but don’t criticize the skeptical when they have much to be skeptical about.
BTW if you want to criticize Obama, again feel free but you should also know that everything he does is done with the approval of Congress, the court system, the bureaucracy, and a majority of the electorate who put him into office. Not sure the Mormons have that kind of street cred to ask us believe that the Garden of Eden is in central Missouri.
Last, but surely not least, why do you feel compelled to “respect” (i.e. consider sacrosanct and above criticism) everyone’s spiritual belief system just because they hang the moniker “religion” on it?
There were no spaghetti straps in my annual.
My college newspaper has always been operated exclusively by undergraduates with complete editorial control.
Mike – your college paper does not have a faculty advisor?
Paul, I didn’t know you were a Sun Devil. Were you there during the Drill Sgt. Frank Kush era?
Frank Kush is a God. He towers above mortal men.
mespo, do you meam ” flim-flamming” in the way your obama is flim-flamming America, then blaming it on those opposed to him? Still, you have no right whatsoever disrespecting religious freedoms of others. Blaming a mormon today for what might have occurred more than a century ago, is like blaming you now for slavery during plantation times.
Paul:
” In fact, ASU took over the State Press at one point while I was there.”
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The local prosecutor tried that at my college paper a few years ago by having the cops bust in with a warrant and demand photos taken by school journalists of a disturbance near campus. The yokels finally figured it out that such Gestapo-like tactics was a violation of federal law (42 U.S. Code § 2000aa), returned the photos and paid to settle the case.
http://www.collegemediamatters.com/2010/04/24/the-breeze-a-storm-student-press-freedom-torn/
samantha:
“It was religious intolerance that forced Mormons to Utah.”
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Well, if you call being run out of Missouri for flim-flamming the locals by decreeing they were the rightful heirs to their neighbors’ property “religious intolerance” so be it. The Mormons were kind enough to then matriculate to Utah and massacre a few dozen innocent settlers passing through their meadow and then blaming it on the local native American tribe. Quite a tolerance worthy cult.
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It was religious intolerance that forced Mormons to Utah. The way bigots are commenting here, they would be fine with outlawing religious expression for all Mormons, never mind other sects. You have a right to your own religious expression, if you have any at all, but you have absolutely no right to deny it to anyone else. Show some intellectual maternity, for chrissakes!
I comment because of Nick Spinelli’s wonderful story, and I’m still smiling. As for the yearbook photos… in a year or two people will only see faces in those little photographs, not the attire. Furthermore, they mostly look like slobs now-a-days. What happened to dressing up for picture day???
Paul:
“mespo – did you work on the yearbook or school newspaper? If you did you know the yearbook or the paper belong to the school and not the students. Same at your college or university.”
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Worked on both student newspapers. The high school student paper was school sponsored and run by it.The paper had no autonomy and had to tow the party line — school’s great, everybody is learning and having fun, there is no premarital sex, blah,blah.
The college paper was school sponsored but we had wide autonomy in the 70s. Folks realized that what they didn’t want to hear was precisely what they needed to hear.
mespo – worked on my high school yearbook, we had no autonomy, none of the colleges I went to had newspaper autonomy. In fact, ASU took over the State Press at one point while I was there.
“Others have pointed out that this is a deeply religious area.”
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Ah, those tolerant Mormons. Always preaching — and now forcing — their ideas of propriety on everybody else. And you wonder why they consistently vote Republican. Tyrants of a feather …
mespo – did you work on the yearbook or school newspaper? If you did you know the yearbook or the paper belong to the school and not the students. Same at your college or university.
Yeah, I did Paul. Went to one. Coached in one. Sent to two kids to one. I find teachers the most conservatives folks around politically but liberal socially.
Who said the Puritans died out? They just moved to Utah.
mespo – you’ve never worked in a high school have you? And diaries have shown the Puritans were not all that pure. 😉
MikeA,and leej, Thanks. She was 1 of 13 kids who grew up hungry in the Depression. Had an absent, alcoholic, father. But, I got my glass half full, always positive, good humor from her. How many of us would have never told anyone about such an embarrassing episode? Self deprecating humor is powerful. Minnie had it in spades.
Paul C. Schulte I think you miss my point. Airbrushing imperfections may be the prerogative of the photographer, but airbrushing by administrative fiat for what school officials consider ‘not in the school’s sense of righteousness’ is crossing a line.
Jim McGuineess wrote: “If we had universal vouchers, then the family could choose where the student enrolled and there could be no argument about senior photo editing since a choice was made to attend the particular school (and be subject to its rules).”
I like the way you think, Jim. Let’s get the rest of society to think this way.
Jamie – call your local high school and see who is in charge of the yearbook. There is usually a faculty advisor and then, depending on the size of the school, a series of people who will look over the yearbook looking for stuff the students have tried to slip by. The yearbook is under the control of the school, they let some students help to make them feel better about themselves. 🙂
Knauer, I agree the focus should be on qualifications alone, but I would draw the line on having you as a coworker wearing a thong. But if you want to wear just a t-shirt, and not get ahead, that’s fine with me too. Kids need to be aware of the pitfalls of career dress, in the same way that we make them aware of the pitfalls of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Dress code, whether we want to believe it or not, is everything when it comes to career advancement, more so in a corporate or government institution. Would you laugh or submit when pulled over by a cop wearing a tank top? Or your doctor? Your professor? Like me, most would think it’s a joke.
It is not illegal for women to go topless in NYC … but some journalists airbrush.
Just sayin’ …