SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Update: The Seminole County school board decided not to cover up a page in the Lyman High School yearbook after all.
Students showed up at Tuesday’s school board meeting after hearing the school planned to place a black sticker over a page in the yearbook that was full of photos of students protesting the Parental Rights in Education law.
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The board voted on a motion to allow administration and the district’s legal team to review a statement that they can approve so they can create a sticker that could be added to the yearbook page so it would be in compliance with school board policy.
This may slightly delay students getting their yearbooks.
Read our previous coverage below:
Students at one Seminole County school will have to wait to get their yearbooks, after school leaders said some of the pictures do not meet school board policy.
The photos in question are from a student-led protest over the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill at Lyman High School earlier this year.
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Because photos and captions were not caught earlier in the proofreading process, the school decided the most cost-effective solution was to place stickers over the photos in question.
Lyman principal Michael Hunter explained why the yearbooks were being delayed in an email to parents.
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“Unfortunately, the pictures and descriptions that depicted this event did not meet school board policy and were not caught earlier in the review process,” the email read.
For students like Ella Snyder who worked on putting the yearbook together, it was crushing news.
“It was extremely disappointing. You work all year on this product and to hear that it was going to be censored was extremely disappointing,” Snyder said.
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On Tuesday a district spokesperson said the school board hoped to clarify the reasons for the decision at its upcoming meeting.
At the heart of the issue is that the photos and captions lack context and did not make it clear that this was a student-led event.
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Co-editor Skye Tiedemann doesn’t buy the district’s explanation.
“We’ve had other walkouts shown in yearbooks in the past, and they have not been covered. It’s just we’re very particular with what we put in the yearbook, and to have it covered and silence the voices of our gay students, it’s just so upsetting.” Tiedeman said.
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