My Bad

June 8, 2017

The trouble began almost immediately after the yearbooks were handed out.  The morning after the seniors were all given their yearbooks, Joan Alexander, the mother of a senior called the principal’s office and demanded to know why a topless teenage girl was featured on the cover of her son’s yearbook.

“There must be a misunderstanding,”  Principal Ramey responded, “The cover depicts a young, Native American boy.”

“That’s a young girl, and those are girl’s breasts!”  Joan insisted. “It’s very inappropriate that they are on my son’s senior yearbook.”

That lunch hour, the Principal met with Mrs. Porter, the faculty advisor to the yearbook staff and all the yearbook staff.  They all squinted and rolled their heads looking at the artwork on the cover of the yearbook - “Yes, he has long hair, but that is typical of Native American boys, I’m pretty sure he looks like a boy.”

Despite the reassurance from the yearbook staff, pressure continued to mount on Principal Ramey.  Joan Alexander had contacted a number of other parents and convinced them to be as upset as she was about the cover artwork.  Soon, dozens of parents were calling demanding action.  

The PTA held an emergency meeting and it was agreed that the cover should be replaced with new artwork.  All the yearbooks would be recalled, and the printing company would take the books apart, and re-bind them with the new cover artwork.  To replace my controversial cover art, the PTA chose to put the regular Silver Lake cartoonish mascot image of a brave waving a tomahawk.  The cost of re-binding all the yearbooks would wipe out all the reserve funds that the PTA had.  It would take a lot of bake sales to make back the cost of this snafu.

None of the divider pages drew any ire from the parents.  All the interior pages I had illustrated had the young native boy looking appropriately boy-like.  I guess when I was referencing that photo Jo took of me on the horse for the cover art, I should have changed my facial features more drastically, and I should have done a better job flattening my chest.