Obesity Thunder Bay-Promoting Education on Health Determinants
Obesity,Diets#Eating Disorders#Bullying#Fat Acceptance#Please Share
Wenatchee High School mistakenly publishes girls' weight in yearbook Obesity Pride June 2011
Wenatchee High School mistakenly publishes girls' weight in yearbook
Please see.
Wenatchee High School cut a single page out of all 1,100 yearbooks last week after a student on the WaWa yearbook staff used words describing weight instead of names to identify two freshman girls in their club photos.
By RACHEL SCHLEIF
The Wenatchee World
Related
Top comments Hide / Show comments
quotes They used words, the story said in the first paragraph which probably means the student... (June 8, 2011, by ES40) Read more
quotes Wenatchee World Wonder Wrap. Another incoherent story by the Wenatchee World. First... (June 8, 2011, by dave44) Read more
quotes Where they wrestlers? (June 8, 2011, by hogtyed) Read more
Read all 6 comments > Post a comment >
rue","quality":"high"]
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Wenatchee High School cut a single page out of all 1,100 yearbooks last week after a student on the WaWa yearbook staff used words describing weight instead of names to identify two freshman girls in their club photos.
Yearbook staff adviser Jeanette Marantos said she does not know who wrote the captions. She does not believe the mistake was malicious.
"I believe the intention was to go get their names and replace them," Marantos said.
"No matter what the intent was, it was incredibly unprofessional and wrong to have done that."
Assistant Principal Gracie Helm would not say if any students have been disciplined as of Monday. The review is ongoing.
"Right now our focus is all about healing," Helm said. "When we can clear our heads, we're going to sit down and talk about what needs to be done."
She would not comment on the emotional state of the two freshman girls.
About 21 students worked on the 280-page annual this year.
The offending page was sent to press in January or February, Marantos said.
In a typical year, the section editor, editor-in-chief and adviser review the proofs before the final deadline in late March. Marantos said she did not see the photo captions. She took extended personal leave for a family emergency in February.
WaWa staff members first learned of the errors after they distributed about 130 yearbooks at their annual early release party on May 31.
"They were horrified," Marantos said. "Our editor-in-chief has worked tirelessly to fix this, but we know you can't really fix this.
"We've hurt several people, unintentionally, but we still hurt them and it's a terrible thing."
Marantos contracted with a local printer to print stickers and cover the offensive captions. The administration then asked the WaWa to cut the page out and print an insert instead. The staff inserted the new page as they distributed the remaining yearbooks Friday.
More than half of the early distribution yearbooks have been recovered, cut and returned without the offending page.
In total, the mistake cost the WaWa about $1,000 of their $60,000 yearly budget, Marantos said.
Marantos said next year's editor-in-chief is already working on new policies.
"There's that freedom, that we're a student-led publication and we're creating this thing that reflects what students think, but there's also a huge responsibility that goes along with that," Marantos said.
"We're going to have to work very hard to make sure we live up to that responsibility."
---
Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com
Share:
Comments (6) E-mail
Please see and share. Please see and share.Please see
Please see.
Wenatchee High School cut a single page out of all 1,100 yearbooks last week after a student on the WaWa yearbook staff used words describing weight instead of names to identify two freshman girls in their club photos.
By RACHEL SCHLEIF
The Wenatchee World
Related
Top comments Hide / Show comments
quotes They used words, the story said in the first paragraph which probably means the student... (June 8, 2011, by ES40) Read more
quotes Wenatchee World Wonder Wrap. Another incoherent story by the Wenatchee World. First... (June 8, 2011, by dave44) Read more
quotes Where they wrestlers? (June 8, 2011, by hogtyed) Read more
Read all 6 comments > Post a comment >
rue","quality":"high"]
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Wenatchee High School cut a single page out of all 1,100 yearbooks last week after a student on the WaWa yearbook staff used words describing weight instead of names to identify two freshman girls in their club photos.
Yearbook staff adviser Jeanette Marantos said she does not know who wrote the captions. She does not believe the mistake was malicious.
"I believe the intention was to go get their names and replace them," Marantos said.
"No matter what the intent was, it was incredibly unprofessional and wrong to have done that."
Assistant Principal Gracie Helm would not say if any students have been disciplined as of Monday. The review is ongoing.
"Right now our focus is all about healing," Helm said. "When we can clear our heads, we're going to sit down and talk about what needs to be done."
She would not comment on the emotional state of the two freshman girls.
About 21 students worked on the 280-page annual this year.
The offending page was sent to press in January or February, Marantos said.
In a typical year, the section editor, editor-in-chief and adviser review the proofs before the final deadline in late March. Marantos said she did not see the photo captions. She took extended personal leave for a family emergency in February.
WaWa staff members first learned of the errors after they distributed about 130 yearbooks at their annual early release party on May 31.
"They were horrified," Marantos said. "Our editor-in-chief has worked tirelessly to fix this, but we know you can't really fix this.
"We've hurt several people, unintentionally, but we still hurt them and it's a terrible thing."
Marantos contracted with a local printer to print stickers and cover the offensive captions. The administration then asked the WaWa to cut the page out and print an insert instead. The staff inserted the new page as they distributed the remaining yearbooks Friday.
More than half of the early distribution yearbooks have been recovered, cut and returned without the offending page.
In total, the mistake cost the WaWa about $1,000 of their $60,000 yearly budget, Marantos said.
Marantos said next year's editor-in-chief is already working on new policies.
"There's that freedom, that we're a student-led publication and we're creating this thing that reflects what students think, but there's also a huge responsibility that goes along with that," Marantos said.
"We're going to have to work very hard to make sure we live up to that responsibility."
---
Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com
Share:
Comments (6) E-mail
Please see and share. Please see and share.Please see
Comment
-
Comment by Paul Murphy on May 15, 2012 at 8:06am -
-
Comment by Joanne Swain on June 11, 2011 at 8:19am -
This kind of thing brings back very painful memories, and having gone through high school, overweight, I am all to familar with what your peers are capable of, and it is hard for me to believe that this could be unintentional, for some of those involved. I do hope the school acknowledges, that, there is an need, to add to its school program sensitivity training of what it is like to live life in a different pair of shoes. The two girls, are scarred for life, and no doubt their self esteems damaged ..I hope also, that couselling has been offered. We must not accept that it is okay, to discriminate, againist obesity, it is the one accepted form of discrimination no matter what culture you come from..and its time to take a stand and say no..we dont accept this from our students anymore.
-
Comment by Darliene Howell on June 8, 2011 at 5:31pm -
I can't imagine the horror those two girls felt. I find it interesting that they wouldn't comment on the emotional state of the girls. This had to be incredibly hurtful to their body image and self-esteem.
-
Comment by Paul Murphy on June 8, 2011 at 1:57pm
-
They used words, the story said in the first paragraph which probably means the student in charge of this particular spread wrote derogatory descriptions as a place keeper intending to find out the girls names later instead of something simpler and non-judgmental such as asterisks.
The story isn't that an editor missed something but that our schools are failing at their most crucial function: to create citizens who will improve society. The student who wrote this description is a student leader probably in the junior or senior year (typical for students chosen for chosen to yearbook). As the student typed those captions in the computer, something in the training or nature ought to have gone off and the student ought to have realized that even if one has those thoughts, it's cruel to write them down where even without publication others would have seen.
The story here is that in the battery of tests we require high school students to pass, we do not assess them nor ask them to assess themselves in decency, the most essential contribution we can all make to our society. Our public schools offer students classes to help them pass the HSP when they have already failed it, offer them high-paced AP courses to get them into better colleges, but lack a simple course called 'Ethics'. The student on a small scale is showing us what is created when we value number-results over the feelings and lives of other human beings.
Society at its Latin root, incidentally, means 'a group of allies/friends'. I doubt the freshmen girls here feel part of a society at the moment.
© 2013 Created by Paul Murphy.
You need to be a member of Obesity Thunder Bay-Promoting Education on Health Determinants to add comments!
Join Obesity Thunder Bay-Promoting Education on Health Determinants