By the book: High school yearbooks face challenging times

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 8:34 a.m.

The smiling young girl in the photo had her hand raised and shot an apparent thumbs up to the camera.

A positive gesture.

It was her raised pinky that caused the problem.

It was a sign that could be misconstrued.

It's also a sign of the times.

"She could have been making a (gang) sign, I don't know, so I didn't use it," said Lisa Keith, the yearbook adviser for Bonanza High School.

Yearbook advisers are under increasing pressure to ensure the annual tome is an accurate account of the students' lives, and doesn't include anything offensive, such as lewd logos, inappropriate clothing, gang hand signals or offensive writing on notebooks.

The intense scrutiny is overwhelming but much needed, said Judy Allen, the Las Vegas yearbook representative for Jostens, a yearbook printer.

"These are highly sensitive issues and advisers have to be cognizant of anything that could happen," Allen said.

When she was a yearbook representative in Ohio in the '80s, Allen recalls a senior who was photographed in front of a smashed car and labeled the Worst Male Driver for the yearbook photo categories. The yearbooks were printed on Friday. On Sunday, graduation day, the student and his friend were killed in a car crash he had caused.

"Now that photo is out there forever, and I can't imagine what his family must think when they look at it," Allen said.

The handful of local high school advisers Allen works with are keenly aware of their responsibility, she said, as are the students. The valley's high school students tend to be involved and very vocal.

Yearbooks typically cost from $45 to $65 at Las Vegas Valley high schools and are about 250 to 400 pages long, depending on the school size. CD-ROMS, music discs of popular songs from the year, engraving and autograph inserts can be purchased to enhance the yearbook for an additional fee.

Technology has allowed for students to include more color photos, but has also increased the advisers' headaches. The yearbooks of yesterday didn't include news-of-the-day banners, student surveys about teen life or senior ads in the back of the book.

It's quite an undertaking.

The staff works on content concepts, covers and themes throughout the year, and attend summer camps and conferences concerning yearbook layout. Once the photos are taken and the quotes gathered, the book takes five months to assemble and lay out. This year's books are expected to be delivered to schools by May 7.

Students locally have favored icons next to names, depicting hobbies or achievements and surveys in the yearbook to be filled out regarding favorite songs, television shows or hangouts.

"This is their history," Allen said.

There is a certain level of paranoia among advisers, which is not completely unjustified, said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.

"The reality is that yearbooks and newspapers, for example, are very permanent, so the damage they can do is greater than other types of publications," Goodman said.

In the past 10 years annuals have become more professional as yearbook technology and education increase.

"The change has been dramatic, a big improvement," Goodman said. "Students are taught that their role is to provide an accurate picture of what was in the school year."

And they do

"We want everyone to open up the yearbook and see (that) we wanted everyone to have a chance to be in it," Nicole Rice, a Bonanza junior, said.

The 34 students on the yearbook staff gather quotes from students around the campus as well as at fast-food hangouts and after-school activities, to ensure the entire student body is represented.

The students said they don't want the pages of their book to be dominated by athletes and cheerleaders or members of the popular crowd.

"We don't like people appearing too much in the yearbook," Andrea Sun, a Bonanza junior, said. "Some people are in all the clubs and activities, so you can't put too much of them in."

The students are as vigilant as their teacher in perusing the pages to proofread.

"Every quote, we have to make sure it's not offensive," Rice said.

The parameters of what passes for politically correct can be restricting, she said.

For instance, Bonanza's yearbook staff wanted to include a photo of a typical student at lunch, as well as his comical quote.

The photo was pulled from the yearbook.

It wasn't because of anything the student was wearing or what he said. It was the possibility of someone assuming racial insensitivity because the black student was posing in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, a favorite student snack spot.

"Maybe he just likes KFC," Michelle Georges, a Bonanza sophomore, argued.

One point of contention in many high schools today, Keith said, is senior photos that depict class favorites such as Best Dressed, Hair, Car and Eyes.

"I like them," Rice said.

Her classmates agreed.

"It's going to be my battle," Keith said. "I know they like it but it's always popular people, and we are trying to get away from that."

The popular students tend to stuff the ballot box when voting for these honors, Robert Carter, a Bonanza junior, said.

"I don't care how nice your eyes are, the most popular person is going to win," Carter said.

The Biggest Flirt category also came under fire.

"That shouldn't be in there. That has a really negative connotation," Georges said.

Students are already honored for their physical and academic achievements at the annual spring senior assembly.

"That's the best place for it, not in the yearbook, where it's forever," Morgan said. "I think the kids that aren't included in it do find it offensive."

Out with the old

Susan Thornton, Silverado High School's yearbook adviser, said parents threatened to boycott a yearbook a few years ago because of a senior category photo for Best Pant Back Pockets. The sexual innuendo was not appreciated.

"They get upset and we have to be careful," Thornton said. "This is their (parents' and students') book, theirs for a lifetime."

Photos she pulled from the yearbook included those submitted by parents. A photo of a teen with an empty wine glass at home with her parents was denied for a senior ad in the back of the yearbook.

"She wasn't drinking, but it could have been seen as that way," Thornton said. "We don't condone anything that does not follow the school (rules) or is illegal. No way."

The members of Thornton's student yearbook staff said they understand some activities should be omitted, such as drinking and smoking, but that the yearbook should also honestly depict the school year.

Last fall a Silverado teacher was arrested for making bomb threats. Students were evacuated and the scene was tense.

"It's a sore subject in school, but it did happen," Nicole Pongracz, a Silverado senior, said. "We wanted to include it because people will remember it."

Jace Medsker, a Silverado junior, said the inclusion of more photos, approximately 11 per page, as well as surveys from students, paints a proper picture of their generation and their school.

"It captures more of the students' lives," he said. "How they react, not just how they look. It's a lot less boring."

Kristina Landerman, a senior at Boulder City High School, said the yearbook staff in the small town also must be aware of the content of photos and captions in their yearbook.

"It is very strict," Landerman said. "We are restricted with a lot of rules."

The 24-member yearbook staff did not receive many photos that had to be nixed, although there were a few questionable items of clothing, or lack thereof, in photos.

"There was a logo on a hat and we were not allowed to put that in," Landerman said. "The photo, in my opinion, was fine but not in the administration's."

Sheri Foster, the Boulder City High School art teacher, is in her first year as an adviser. It has been overwhelming.

"Yearbook advisers have so much responsibility," Foster said. "We are keeping track of every event, assembly, every student. We don't want to miss a thing that might be a memory for someone."

She proofread each page twice.

"I got pretty clean copy," she said.

There were questionable moments, she said. A female student asked Foster if she knew what was happening in a photo of students off-campus. The new adviser became suspicious and pulled the photo because she didn't know if there was a private joke involved in the photo or its location off-campus.

"I couldn't tell from the photo if it was bad, but she was acting weird so I had to say, 'No'," Foster said. "It's too important."

archive