Yearbook Enforces Dress Code, Free of Charge

SARA HERNANDEZ
Staff Writer

Many schools have the issue of dealing with dress code violations; either a student wears too little or too much. Situations like this can be generally resolved with a simple “Come to the office, we will give you a change of clothes,” but not all can be dealt with this easily. Recently, the school board of Wasatch High School in Utah found themselves in a situation where they had to resort to the help of Photoshop to alter the yearbook photos of certain students due to dress code violations. The students took offense to the school board’s decision and according to one student whose picture was altered, “I was never notified my blouse was inappropriate and was never informed that it was going to be changed,”according to Fox News The problem with the argument is that the school had warned students that if there were any violations of dress code their pictures would be altered with Photoshop. With that warning in place, the school had the rights to change the appearances in the yearbook photos.

Schools ethically reserve the right to enforce their dress code policies in school pictures, but the administration should still take the time to inform students of the reason for the alterations. The way a school is perceived within a yearbook can mean a lot in the long run of their reputation. Once something is published it can never disappear and therefore there should not be outrage over the editing of a couple pictures that were seen as indiscreet. This incident, like any other school problem, was solved in a way that will show students that the rules will be enforced with any tools available. Some students might get caught and others might not, but moments like this show us that schools will use whatever tool possible to enforce dress code.