FL Girls’ Yearbook Photos Edited, Often Badly, To Cover Cleavage

ST. JOHNS, FL — The neckline of the shirt Adrian Bartlett’s daughter wore for her Bartram Trail High School yearbook was raised to erase any hint of cleavage.

About 80 other female students at the St. Johns, Florida, also school saw their photos edited — without their consent, and to add clothing.

Not only that, whoever did the editing did a hack job on Bartlett’s daughter’s picture, making her body look unnatural. The other kids are teasing her. But the biggest problem is the message being sent to girls as their bodies mature, Bartlett told the St. Augustine Record.

“I think it sends the message that our girls should be ashamed of their growing bodies, and I think that's a horrible message to send out to these young girls that are going through these changes,” she said.

None of the boys’ photos were altered, including some that picture a pair of teens in torso hugging swim trunks.

The decision to edit the photos was made by Bartram High School yearbook coordinator Anne Irwin, who made her decisions on the dress code, a St. Johns County School District spokesperson told news station WJXT. Bartram is one of more than a dozen high schools in the St. Johns County School District.

“I am sure there are many different opinions on whether they were or were not [in violation of the school’s dress code],” the spokesperson told the news station. “The dress code guidelines are in our student code of conduct, but enforcement of the dress code happens at the school level and differs from administration to administration.”

The unskilled editing of the photos also is at issue.

A photo on the WJXT web site shows a photo of Bartlett’s daughter looking disheveled, as if she had slipped the buttons of her shirt into the wrong buttonholes. Bartlett’s concern goes beyond that.

“It was a little sad, a little worrisome because my daughter has struggled with mental health and self-esteem and body issues and even resulted in a couple of hospitalizations this year because of that,” she told WJXT. “So this is just one more thing that could be super detrimental to these young minds. So it’s, it’s scary.”

The school “has made a decision that is now drawing attention to her body in a negative way,” Bartlett told the St. Augustine Record. “It sends the message that our young girls should be ashamed of their naturally growing bodies.”

Freshman Riley O’Keefe told WJXT she didn’t think the outfit she chose for school photos violated the dress code, and also said no from the administration told her it wasn’t on photo day. When it came time to choose photos for the yearbook, “it made me feel a little uncomfortable that’s what they noticed,” she said.

The photo of her in the yearbook was a surprise, O’Keefe said.

“There’s a black box over my chest and the cardigan on the side is like moved over and it looks really awkward,” she said.

Her mother, Stephanie Fabre, wants to know "what adult approved that."

“How does that happen? Why are they allowed to be judgmental on cleavage or no cleavage? And if they are allowed to Photoshop, why aren't you teaching them proper Photoshopping skills, and why did this teacher approve for this to go to print?" she told the St. Augustine Record.

The school is already in trouble with parents who say its dress code is sexist and unfairly targets girls. Among other dress code guidelines, girls must wear tops and shirts that cover the entire shoulder and tops that are modest and not revealing or distracting. It forbids them from wearing dresses and tops that have cut-outs or extremely short skirts, and also dictates the type of slacks and amount of makeup they can wear.

Boys are also prohibited from wearing revealing clothing and pajamas, and must wear their pants at the waist so they don't reveal boxer shorts or underwear. They also must keep their mustaches and beards neatly trimmed.

In the past, photos that showed students in violation of the code of conduct, of which the dress code is a part, were simply not printed. The district spokesperson said “the digital alterations were a solution to make sure all students were included in the yearbook.”

The number of dress code violations tripled during the 2020-21 school year, and that 78 percent of them involved girls, WJXT reported.

An online petition Riley O'Keefe started after Bartram High School students were ordered to the dean’s office in March states the dress code is “clearly based on the sexualization of young women and their clothing, especially since many girls are told they are dressed inappropriately or that what they are wearing may be ‘distracting’ to the boys.”

The petition says the issue over how girls and women dress started “as early as kindergarten.”
“It is clear the issue here isn’t what kind of clothing the young women are wearing but how others interpret them,” it states.

In March, 31 girls were sent to the Bartram High School dean’s office and required to change clothes “all because of the lengths of their shirts, skirts or the thickness of their straps,” according to an online petition protesting the action that has gained more than 5,500 signatures.

Only girls were found to be in violation of the dress code.

“This is ridiculous,” the petition states. “Many young women were even asked to unzip their jackets so that an administrator could check what they were wearing underneath, and if they did not comply, they were threatened with suspension.

“Taking young women out of their learning environment to change clothes when they should be in class learning is not reasonable,” it continues. “Especially considering the fact that almost all of the young men out of dress code were simply given warnings.”

The issue at Bartram High School is common at high schools around the country, according to Lorna Bracewell, an assistant professor of political science and program coordinator for women’s studies at Flagler College in St. Augustine.

“This is a long-established practice of policing women's bodies and responding to women's bodies when they are presented in public with a kind of anxiety and concern,” she said.

She noted the use of language such as “distracting” tells girls there is something inappropriate or unseemly about their bodies and they must compensate for it — for example, by covering them up.

"That's a bad message,” she told the St. Augustine Journal. “That's a message that damages the self-esteem of young people.”

The school district says the yearbooks, which cost $100, can be returned for a full refund if they haven’t been written in. Fabre said the school owes the students an apology.

“They took a non-situation and made a situation out of it,” she told the St. Augustine Journal. “They’ve made these girls feel humiliated."