Just another painful lesson for a powerless kid

The latest of our annual news stories detailing errors and cruelties in yearbooks involves a Utah student with Down Syndrome who was intentionally left out of the school's book.

It's difficult to imagine this level of casual cruelty, but the large group of cheerleaders were posed twice, once WITH the young woman, who was the squad's manager and who knows all their routines by heart, and once without.

Guess which one ended up in the book.

There are adults involved in producing any yearbook, at least an adviser and often some administrator (though that is rarely a good idea). Kids can certainly be quite nasty to one another, and you never know whether something slipped by any supervision, even by editors. But this snub is the second time in three years that this particular student was "accidentally" not included in the yearbook. Fool me once...

It is ironic that the school is now thoroughly embarrassed and looks to be anything but a welcoming place but also curiously inattentive to supporting the sort of leadership involved in creating a yearbook.

There is no better defense against poor decisions than an educated adviser who works closely with student editors to insure complete coverage, adherence to journalistic standards, and considered judgments about how the history of the year should be produced.

But I am willing to bet that Shoreline Junior High has an untrained educator (or parent) in charge of the book. In fact, yearbook advisers are often pulled from the "last hired" group of teachers in a school. "This year you will have four preps, and you will have yearbook as an after-school club. Welcome to the team." 

I mean, anyone can do that job, can't they? Schools, like most businesses, make choices about where to invest time and money, and yearbook advising is rarely near the top of the priorities.

And then the book is delivered and the recriminations begin. For the school, the humiliation and guilt will soon fade. After all, books are often distributed at the very end of the school year and the separation of students and parents and faculty from the school campus allows everyone to conveniently "forget" the entire incident.

The pain for this young woman and her family won't just disappear, though she seems to have a more sophisticated view on how to turn the other cheek than the adults "in charge." 

But honestly, who cares about one girl who is not like everyone else? Want to bet that the school will invest some money and time in either hiring a yearbook adviser who actually WANTS the job or sending the adviser to a workshop to learn the skills and philosophies needed?

I didn't think you would. 

We all know, deep down, that many schools and their leaders just don't care. We all lived through such experiences, though we naively assume that things inevitably get better.

Not at Shoreline Junior High.