Parents Furious After All Signs of Trump Support Erased From High School Yearbook
Wall Township High School student Grant Berardo is shown in an image wearing a T-shirt with Donald Trump’s name on it, left, and as it appeared in a photo published in the school yearbook.
Parents in Wall Township, New Jersey, are furious after someone at Wall High School apparently Photoshopped their children’s supported for Trump right out of the yearbook.
The controversy erupted this week when students came home with their school yearbooks and parents like Joe Berardo found their children’s pro-Trump merchandise had been erased. As reported in the New York Post, Gerardo had purchased over $100 worth of Trump material for his son Grant, a junior at the high school, to wear in celebration of his support of the 45the president of the United States. “It was the first election he took an interest in,” Gerardo told the Post.
Other students’ support of making America great again were also exorcised from the school yearbook. Junior Wyatt Dobrovich-Fago wore a “Trump” sweater vest that started the call to arms in the first place. “I thought maybe they just cropped it out or something that I shouldn’t worry about,” Dobrovich-Fago told WABC. “But, in fact, his sister Montana noticed that the Donald Trump quote she submitted to the yearbook had also been removed.
Students, parents say some Wall Township High School yearbook photos were censored
It started with Junior Wyatt Dobrovich-Fago's Donald Trump sweater vest. The logo was gone.
Joe Gerardo pointed to plenty of other slogan T-shirts on display in the yearbook, including the New Jersey Devils and a vintage Reagan-Bush shirt in a candid shot. Parents and students have complained that no policy or set of guidelines was released before the pictures were taken. Wall High School representatives have not copped to who made the call to erase the Trump slogans. However the school superintendent Cheryl Dyer has commented in support of the bewildered parents, stating “There is nothing in our student dress code that would prevent a student from expressing his or her political views,” she wrote in a message to parents. “The actions of the staff involved will be addressed as soon as the investigation is concluded.”
“Somebody made a bad decision,” says Joe Gerardo. “And that decision has consequences.” Gerardo and other parents are calling for the yearbook to be reprinted — slogans and quotes intact — at the school’s expense.
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LawyerLady
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What a shame. I can't believe they would so something like this. This, to me, speaks volumes! It's a shame parents didn't know before ordering the yearbook for their kids. They could've refused and the school would lose money on it.
I think the school should be made to reprint them as well. If not, I would hope the parents banned together to see if something can be legally done to have the book printed with the correct pics. Perhaps the students could mass mail the yearbooks back to the publisher/printer. I don't know but what the school did was totally wrong.
In the article I read yesterday, they said it wasn't clear who made the decision to edit the photos. Someone at the school, or someone at the yearbook company.
Until they figure out who made that bad call, I'd hate, as a taxpayer, to have the school district spend all that money to reprint the yearbook.
If it was someone at the yearbook company...they should have to pay for it.
I'd need to know the policy on political statements at the school. Was there one before Trump? If there was and it's enforced for all political displays, then fine.
If, however, this is backlash against Trump's victory, then it's most assuredly NOT "fine", and I'd sue if I was one of those parents.
