http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=105906&catid=8
Tampa, Florida - Page 219 of the brand new school yearbook is all the talk at Sickles High School in Citrus Park."There's a picture of a girl in the club pages," said senior Xander Morehouse.
The picture is of a student with, what some are saying, are her private parts showing.
And it is published in the school yearbook.
"When I saw it, I kind of flipped out. I was like, 'Oh my God', but I think that she's probably like really horrified," said sophomore Caitlin Darden.
10 Connects caught up with the 16-year-old in the photo - and her mother Jeanette. The young girl admits she didn't wear underwear that day but says it was because she didn't want her panty lines to show. She says she did not show herself like that on purpose, "Absolutely not. It is ridiculously embarrassing."
The Sickles junior says she found out about the photo when seniors got their yearbooks on Monday. She has not been back to school since. "I started crying, I was freaking out and I didn't know what to do. This is my junior year, it's so important. I didn't think I could go back to school knowing that everyone knew and had seen the picture."
By the end of the day on Monday, more than two-hundred yearbooks had been passed out. Hundreds more went out Wednesday. With more than 2,500 students at Sickles, many more yearbooks are expected to go out over the next week.
"As a mom, I'm not going to make her go [to school]," said Jeanette. Mom wants the school to stop handing out the yearbooks, collect the ones that have gone out and reprint them without the photo.
"I don't want any yearbooks out there that have this photo in it because it is going to follow her," said Jeanette.
The Sickles principal called Jeannette while we were at her home. Jeanette said he suggested she not to talk to us because it would be exploiting the girl. "He [the principal] said he doesn't want to exploit my daughter and here he is passing out yearbooks with her picture still in it and continuing to pass out pictures! It's like don't you get it?" exclaimed Jeanette.
Hillsborough County School District spokesperson Linda Cobbe told 10 Connects the picture is not revealing at all. "We don't believe there is exposure in the yearbook.... It is a shadow."
"Is it a shadow, is it not a shadow? My whole thing is, it doesn't matter, the photo itself is damaging to a 16-year-old and should not have been published," said Jeanette.
"All of the administrators are trying to downplay it and saying I should really laugh it off and come back to school but I've been humiliated," said the junior who will not return to school for the rest of the year.
The district says there is a lengthy chain of command when it comes to approving and printing the yearbook - that includes faculty advisors and even an administrator.
