High School Photoshops Out All Traces Of Cleavage In The Yearbook Pics Of 80 Girls And Parents Are Not Happy

Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida has come under the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It turns out, the prudish school has put a weird editing twist on its students’ yearbook photos and covered up all traces of girls’ cleavage.

The news about photoshopped photos, all of which featured girls, broke after a reporter, Ben Ryan of Action News Jax, shared his investigation of the matter on Twitter. According to the school district, girls’ yearbook photos must follow dress code guidelines and they deemed the 80 pictures inappropriate. Meanwhile, the boys’ pictures from the swim team and other sports photos were left unedited.

So let’s read Ben Ryan’s viral thread about searching for answers on how this high school made a decision that girls’ cleavage “violated student code of conduct.” Action News Jax reports that it was, sadly, a female yearbook teacher who made this controversial decision.

Reporter Ben Ryan from Action News Jax has investigated the controversy surrounding digitally altered yearbook photos of girl students at Bartram Trail High School. In his story for Action News Jax, Ben reported that while no officials have spoken up about the controversy, the ninth-grade students are asking for apologies after being left in shock.

One student, Riley O’Keefe, told Action News Jax that the worst part of this weird photoshop stunt was obvious double standards for photos of girls and boys. “The double standard in the yearbook is more so they looked at our body and thought just a little bit of skin showing is sexual. They looked at the boys, for the swim team photos and other sports photos and thought that was fine, and that’s really upsetting and uncomfortable.”

Another student, Zoe Iannone, whose photo has also been altered to remove cleavage, commented: “I don’t know who is on the staff. I don’t know if it's male or female, either way, it’s still not okay. They open up the yearbook, saw pictures and that was the first thing they worried about. It was unfair and I was horrified, I was disgusted.”

Action News Jax also shared an official statement regarding the controversy where the school district stated:

“Bartram Trail High School’s previous procedure was to not include student pictures in the yearbook that they deemed in violation of the student code of conduct, so the digital alterations were a solution to make sure all students were included in the yearbook. At this point the school is offering refunds to any parents calling about this issue. The school is receiving feedback from parents/guardians/students on making this process better for next year.”