To paraphrase a line from the Little River Band, it used to be so easy to get your senior picture taken in high school or college. You pick out your Sunday best, go to the studio, and pose for a portrait, which would appear in your senior yearbook.
Today, there's a beef in Colorado over a high school senior's picture being banned from the yearbook because it's too racy. The student, Sydney Spies, is arguing freedom of expression. The 5-person committee that is editing the Durango High yearbook, on the other hand, feels it smacks too much of cheesecake and is inappropriate for use as a senior portrait.
Now, here's where it gets a little bit stupid. The editors have offered Ms. Spies the opportunity to have the picture published in the yearbook after all, just not as a portrait. They would have an area designated for the picture, and she would pose for a more appropriate and traditional picture. Ms. Spies and her family have objected, and the word that's out now, per Yahoo! and Good Morning America, is that they're considering civil action against the school. It seems that Sydney's nose is so out of joint in this case, that she's directing her anger toward the school faculty, which had no say in the decision. The yearbook editors acted on their own and voted unanimously, 5-0, to ban the picture. Ms. Spies, in crying foul, claims the editors were being intimidated by the faculty. I don't see how, when the editors' argument is as clear as day. These are high school seniors, ages 17-18, who've accepted the responsibility of putting the yearbook together.
Sydney, in this writer's opinion, while a senior herself, is behaving more like a pre-teen with a temper issue. She wants to waste taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit she has no hope of winning? Fuhgeddaboutit! This is a case more suited to someplace like, oh, I don't know, maybe The People's Court or Judge Judy, so Sydney can be shown to the whole world to be about as sharp as a broken.........dunce cap. I rest my case.
I went to take a peek at the photo and it looks like the kind of shot used to promote strip clubs and brothels.
ReplyDeleteThen she has the nerve to trot out that overused phrase, "freedom of expression". No sweetheart, this is not about freedom of expression, it's about looking dignified for your senior class picture so you won't feel so embarrassed when you look at it again in 20 or 30 years.
Worst of all her parents are enabling this! They should have told her to dress appropriately for the portrait and saved the glamour girl look for a different part of the yearbook. They really need to take a step back and decide if this really is the hill they want to die on.
Forget about an appearance on Judge Judy - she'd lay into that snotty brat and her parents but good!!
Sounds to me like Sydney's the kind of girl who'd fit the description of Dumb Dora, one of the characters that Gene Rayburn had questions about on Match Game back in the day.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I think Judge Marilyn on People's Court would skewer the Spies family, too.