Education

Utah High School Randomly Modifies Girls’ Yearbook Photos To Remove Cleavage, Bra Straps, Tats

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A bunch of female students at a high school in a rural, conservative Utah town are upset that school officials stealthily modified their yearbook photos to hide modest bits of cleavage, conceal bra straps and, in at least one case, obscure what appears to be a sweet tattoo.

The cover-up occurred at Wasatch High School in Heber City, reports Salt Lake City Fox affiliate KSTU.

Two of the students have original photos that show a hint of cleavage. In the modified photos, they are all of the sudden wearing much higher-cut black shirts. For one of these students, what appears to be a tattoo of written words in cursive is also magically erased.

Three more students – one who originally had the tiniest hint of a bra strap showing – appear sleeveless in their unedited photos but get new pairs of sleeves in their edited images.

However, the students say school officials did not edit the photos of other females who showed up for picture day dressed the same way.

The teens are furious because they say school officials made the photoshopping decisions arbitrarily.

“I feel like they put names in a hat and pick and choose who,” Wasatch High sophomore Rachel Russel told KSTU. “There were plenty of girls that were wearing thicker tank tops and half of them got edited and half of them didn’t.”

School district officials are defending the edits.

Terry E. Shoemaker, the superintendent of the Wasatch County School District, noted that the district warned students about the possible photo alterations to make students appear appropriately reactionary.

“It was a large enough sign that other people clearly remember it and certainly it should have gotten their attention that that was a possibility,” Shoemaker told the Fox affiliate.

He did add that he is sorry that school officials failed so utterly to edit with any semblance of uniformity.

“We only apologize in the sense that we want to be more consistent with what we’re trying to do in that sense we can help kids better prepare for their future by knowing how to dress appropriately for things,” the superintendent told a KSTU reporter.

Much like various prom-related fracases, yearbook kerfuffles are a fairly consistent staple across America.

Last week, for example, a suburban Atlanta senior found herself in hot H2O after school officials managed to crack the inspiring periodic table code in her yearbook quote. (RELATED: Daily Caller Patriot: High Schooler Suspended For ‘Back That A$$ Up’ Periodic Table Yearbook Stunt)

In November, the Southern Poverty Law Center took up the cause of an 18-year-old, biologically female transgender student who wasn’t allowed to wear a dashing black-and-white tuxedo for her senior yearbook photograph. (RELATED: Southern Poverty Law Center reduced to bullying school over transgender yearbook photo)

In the fall, the news came out that fancypants private schools in Los Angeles are bringing in celebrity photographers to shoot yearbook portraits for the gangly, awkward children of the rich and famous. (RELATED: Of course posh private L.A. schools will hire celebrity photographers for yearbook pics)

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