Virginia High School Yearbook Stirs Controversy

Get downloadable PDF.

Get downloadable PowerPoint presentation.

About/Disclaimer

 

What Happened:

Books often are intended to provoke thought, discussion … even controversy. However, those guidelines usually don't pertain to high school yearbooks, which are supposed to be filled with pictures of classmates, highlights from the school year and signatures from your friends.

Maybe that's why this year's annual from Massaponax (Va.) High School has caused such a stir.

Throughout the school year, students who worked on the yearbook encouraged their classmates to submit anonymous "Ponax Confessions" —confessions the staff promised would be published in the yearbook.

Many of the so-called confessions were just dumb or silly; but others were shocking, disturbing and downright sad. Some examples: "I have sex with people just to feel wanted"; "I had an abortion, and my mom doesn't know"; "I once did so much pot that I woke up high"; "I'm pregnant with my best friend's boyfriend's kid."

There's no way of telling which "confessions" are true; but that didn't matter to many parents, who noted the yearbook had other problems, too, such as student quotes that were filled with sexual allusions and double entendres. They were already on edge after the 2009 yearbook featured depictions of an "unclad" woman and someone who seemed to be smoking crack.

"I was appalled, and I'm not a prude," one mother told Fredricksburg.com, regarding this year's annual. "I know what kids do. There's no pictures of the football team or of JV field hockey, but there's plenty of sex and drugs."

"When I looked through the book, I was livid," said another. "A lot of us thought there should have been a discussion last year; and now this."

Massaponax Principal Joe Rodkey is trying to recall the yearbooks and have the entire run reprinted. "It's totally inappropriate for a high school yearbook," he said. "The students, the school and this community deserve a better yearbook than what I have."