Would this bother you? Yearbook mis-identifies students

[Kit]

Would this bother you if you were a student, or if this were one of your kids?

news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mistakes-were-made-school-apologizes-yearbook-captions-151250563.html

"A high school in Hoosic Valley, N.Y., is facing criticism after poor proofreading resulted in the printing of hundreds of yearbooks that label one student as "Creepy smile kid" and another as "Some tall guy," WNYT.com reports.
Acting Superintendent Amy Goodell called the mishap a "nonintentional, honest mistake," according to WNYT. "The yearbook editor and staff are devastated. Apologies are being made."
"As many books as possible have been held and are being amended," Goodell also wrote in an emailed statement to The Saratogian. "The Yearbook adviser, staff, administration and board of education are very sorry that this occurred. Parents that have a student who was not referenced to correctly have been contacted. The parents and students affected by the error have been understanding."
The school's track and field team was particularly hard hit. WNYT reports that one member of the team was labeled "Isolation kid." Other members of the team are referred to as "Someone." The bowling team caption reads, "Whole bottom row is a mystery."
So what happened? Apparently the members of the yearbook staff didn't get around to identifying everyone in the book, so they put in placeholder names (some of which were highly insensitive). Corrections were never made. The yearbook staff did have a faculty adviser, according to WNYT.
According to The Saratogian, while one student who was misidentified said he wasn't worried about the mistakes, others were outraged.
Parent Patty Hough told Fox23News.com she was "appalled" this happened. "Those poor kids, you know, to open up a yearbook and to find how they were labeled," she said.
Karen Houston, the school board president, said school administrators are making efforts to remedy the mistakes."

omg, I cannot believe no one caught this.  

[margotmacomber]

Yeah, I'd be mad.  

[kirra]

Yes, it would bother me.
1) If you're going to put placeholders until you can research names, you should use something that isn't insulting.
2) I don't believe that this is unintentional. One or two slips possibly, but not numerous ones.
3) Yearbooks are expensive. So they're paying quite a bit of money to be insulted/have their kid insulted.

[margotmacomber]

Also, I didn't go to the best high school around, but our year book staff always had someone present while the pics were taken, and had everyone write their names down in the order of seating.  I would think the staff should be reprimanded somehow.  

[angelaa73]

I helped a gf re write her name in every single yearbook one year bc her name was misspelled manana. She's Marianne

Hahaha. So yes I'd be pist

[Kit]

I just don't understand how this could be overlooked by someone who was proof-reading (but it appears no proof reading occurred). It's not like one or two people got mis-labeled, it sounds like the whole book was riddled with errors!

[mushmouse]

Yikes! They put a very Indian name under my very not-Indian friend's picture in our HS yearbook. And we called him that regularly from the day it came out. But that's way different than this!

[walterismydog]

this makes me feel bad for the kids who got mean/mean-ish labels.

[RoxMonster]

This would piss me off. I am the newspaper advisor at my HS and we have to label students in the captions of photos. I also put out the senior edition of the paper that is distributed at graduation and have to make sure every graduating senior is labeled correctly, so I know that eventually your eyes start glossing over and everything runs together.

But this is unacceptable. Placeholders are fine, but they don't have to be insensitive. I find it hard to believe that there were THIS many kids mislabeled and not ONE single staff member knew any of them? That is hard to believe. Also, when team photos are taken, our yearbook staff gives the proof to the coach/advisor and makes them label each person in the photo. Sounds like they need a better system of doing things.

[kirra]

Jun 6, 2013 16:27:38 GMT -5 Kit said:

I just don't understand how this could be overlooked by someone who was proof-reading (but it appears no proof reading occurred). It's not like one or two people got mis-labeled, it sounds like the whole book was riddled with errors!

This is why I think it was intentional. You can't make that many mistakes by accident. "Isolation kid"? "Creepy smile"? Those are insults, not placeholders.

Edited for typo. Isolation, not isolated.

[polka]

When I saw your title, I was thinking it'd be about switching names of two students whose photos were right next to each other or something of that nature.

This is obviously completely different, and hell yeah, I'd be pissed if one of my kids was labeled as such and had to see that.

And claiming it was unintentional? Ha, yeah, right.

[Kit]

I almost wonder if it was some kind of senior prank or something? Because I agree, that this was most likely intentional due to the number of people mis-labeled.

I'd be LIVID if I got some insulting name.

[textbookcase]

Yeah, I'd be pissed!

[Deleted]

As editor of my 8th grade yearbook (also class president and valedictorian, but who is keeping track) I am appalled. I read every page before it went to the printer. At 14 I would not have let this shit happen. What the FUCK was the EIC thinking? What was the advisor thinking? Yeah, it offends me. Standards people.

[Gato]

That's sad. And if it was a prank, it was a dumb one. I would be asking for my money back.

[snickers]

This is really sad.
How devastating, as if high school isn't hard enough..

[speckledfrog]

Jun 6, 2013 16:37:14 GMT -5 elle said:

As editor of my 8th grade yearbook (also class president and valedictorian, but who is keeping track) I am appalled. I read every page before it went to the printer. At 14 I would not have let this shit happen. What the FUCK was the EIC thinking? What was the advisor thinking? Yeah, it offends me. Standards people.

MH was EIC for our HS yearbook and I'm with you on this one.  There is no way this was just a simple oversight.   Each section has editors and then there is the EIC and the advisor. 

[oliveyou]

That's horrible!

[Alyssa]

Yes I would be very upset.  Who wants to open their yearbook and see yourself labeled like that?

There was another case of a student getting labeled as a 'Freak' in his yearbook and his family was fighting to have all the books thrown out and reprinted.  The school was offering to put a sticker over the name, which IMO is ridiculous.

Here's a link to that case.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/dylan-worthen-freak-yearbook-georgia_n_3279179.html

[sawyerthedestroyer]

I was an editor for my high school paper and worked closely with the yearbook staff, particularly at the end of the year for superlatives and whatnot. No way this was just an honest mistake.

[lilybug]

Seems like it would be way more work to go through and write mean names for everyone rather than looking at the list and copying their real name.

I was in yearbook; this is not how it works. There are lots of options for filler / placeholders that don't involve insults. I don't necessarily think it was published that way on purpose, but it's idiotic to do it in the first place.

[cutecloud]

"The high school has about 380 students, with a graduating class of fewer than 100." www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/hoosic-valley-yearbook-mistake-creepy-smile-kid_n_3398053.html

So this was a tiny school and they still couldn't get everyone's name? That's inexcusable. I'd be pissed.

[snorky]

It looks like this town has just under 6,800 residents. How the hell did the yearbook staff not know so many people? My town growing up had about 20k ppl and everyone knew everyone else in high school. I would be livid, this almost seems intentional.

[Deleted]

It depends -- am I creepy smile guy in this scenario, or some tall guy?

Kind of reminds me of the descriptions that restaurant hosts/hostesses write down in their books so they can tell the right group of 4 at the bar that their table is ready. Some are... not nice (I like peeking at them to see how they described me).

[louloudi87]

Jun 6, 2013 17:08:07 GMT -5 cutecloud said:

"The high school has about 380 students, with a graduating class of fewer than 100." www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/hoosic-valley-yearbook-mistake-creepy-smile-kid_n_3398053.html

So this was a tiny school and they still couldn't get everyone's name? That's inexcusable. I'd be pissed.

My graduating class was more than the number of kids in that school. We had well over 2000 students. And there's no way this would have happened. I would be livid if some one said that about me or my nonexistent child. That is not okay.

[Moe]

I am livid for them!