…and the rest is history

It never ceases to amaze me how sheltered some people think their children are. Since it’s high school yearbook distribution time, stories are popping up all over the place about the “immoral” and “inappropriate” topics being covered. Lord. Do these people realize what their children are doing everyday outside of their homes?

A few years ago, we had a spread on religious practices of our students and covered the spirituality practices that were practiced by students in our high school: Christianity, Wicca and Islam. Although no actual phone calls were made to my knowledge (my pretty awesome administration has in the past received such calls and handled them without telling me, so who knows), I do know people were upset. Why? I’m not sure–according to national standards, we’re supposed to be covering our student body in what they do both inside and outside school. Obviously, religion is important to many of them and their families.

Teaching kids about free speech should also be important, but some people don’t see it that way.

Can you imagine being the poor kids who are on the receiving end of phone calls and the subjects public meetings when they decide to put a same sex couple on the yearbook spread about dating…in a town full of outspoken religious conservatives?

Sure, journalists tick people off and sometimes end up making advertisers angry enough to pull advertising. Most of the people involved in professional-level journalism have developed a bit of a hardened shell and have quite a bit more maturity than they had when they were in high school. The outcome of coming down so hard on kids who haven’t yet developed that shell or maturity is that they start to get a little to sensitive and self-censor more than necessary, which hurts everyone in the end.

Yearbook creates concern: Oh, my God. Lesbian couples in a high school yearbook? Smiting is sure to come.