Bradfield Elementary Yearbook Gets Caught Up in a Scandal
People, I don’t make this stuff up. The following e-mail went out to parents of Bradfield students just a few minutes ago.
Dear Bradfield Parents,
The Bradfield yearbook will be printed and distributed during the last week of school. The book is full of many memorable moments from this school year, and we are all looking forward to the last day of school, when the children will have their traditional signing parties.
You may have seen a series of e-mails and an online petition regarding the Bradfield yearbook, and I am writing to answer questions about what occurred.
The yearbook is an annual PTA project that is handled by volunteers. The PTA works in partnership with me, as it is my responsibility to approve all the classroom pages. This year, the classroom pages were very different. They did not include candid pictures of every child, as had been the practice for many years. I told the volunteer that if there weren’t enough candids to include all the students, the pages could be redesigned to simply include the portraits and leave out the candids altogether so no children were excluded. The PTA offered to assist the volunteer with page redesign and photography, but those offers were rebuffed. Despite repeated requests, the volunteer did not follow through with the revisions. She eventually filed a copyright claim to the version of the book that she had designed, stating that the book was not to be altered in any way without her authorization.
Needless to say, the Bradfield PTA did not want to become involved in litigation over the school yearbook, and several PTA volunteers created a new yearbook. Our top priority was to be sure our children had a book to remember their school year. In addition, we needed to act as responsible stewards of Bradfield’s hard-earned PTA dollars and ensure that those limited funds were not tied up in litigation. The school district is supporting the PTA by taking on the role as the publishing entity.
We had all hoped to handle this situation quietly, but since it has become the subject of a public e-mail campaign, online petition and copyright claim, the situation has escalated. I felt each of our parents was owed a clear explanation.
In addition, several parents were sent a link to the original yearbook, and some have expressed concerns about their children’s pictures being published in this manner. We understand their concerns and will take steps to ensure our students’ pictures and information are protected in the future.
We will continue to take steps to avoid any future conflicts regarding copyright and ownership of school projects. Bradfield enjoys a long history of partnership with its PTA, and we appreciate the many hours that have been dedicated to making sure our students receive their yearbooks.
Respectfully,
Gloria McNutt
Bradfield Principal
15 comments to "Bradfield Elementary Yearbook Gets Caught Up in a Scandal"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bradfieldyearbook/
And thankfully it leads to the person who must be the ‘volunteer’ who now owns a copyright on the most notorious yearbook to come out of HPISD. Huzzah!
Everyone should know, if they volunteer for a position – which the level of parent involvement is one thing that makes HPISD such a great district – they have to play by the Principal & PTA rules!!! I have been on several PTA committee’s and volunteered countless hours and I know there is some sort of “notebook” and at the very least verbal guidance passed down to each incoming volunteer chariman.
As for the book being published onto the internet under her pending copyright – how many of you parents gave her written permission to post your child’s picture AND name out there for the world to see??? If you were like me, you gave permission to HPISD for them to use my child’s name and photograph if needed – not an individual who is applying for a copyright for a book that was being done for an elementary school who essentially had the rights to the pictures for their use – not hers!!
REALLY???????
Dear Bradfield Families:
I am so sorry to say that the yearbook that I spent countless hours on will not be distributed to you. As the book was about to go to print, I was informed that the adorable candid pictures on the classroom pages were not allowed, unless every child from the class was in the picture. Thus, destroying the integrity of the whole design that I have been working on since last summer. My options were to either start all over or leave big holes in those pages—both options above and beyond what should ever be asked of a volunteer.
I certainly would not have created a design in the first place, if I could have foreseen issues—but there were no guidelines given to me on this at all.
Then, I had very few people submit candid photos and I sent out a slew of photo requests. I even made numerous phone calls and took many photos myself. Bottom line, I used almost every single photo that was usable/available, somewhere in the yearbook.
Due to the number of candids available, I decided to make the school portraits larger—leaving only a small space for candids. Neverthless, the candids included on the class pages are what makes the yearbook so endearing. I truly put together the best product possible, with what I had to work with.
I’m baffled that the slim possibility of offending someone, especially when they were given numerous opportunities to participate, outweighs hurting those of us that work so hard for the school and our children.
Needless to say, Yearbook Chair is a huge job for one person—and it was ONE PERSON. But those of you that know me, know that I take on projects whole-heartedly. I spent at least 20 hours creating the plaid background and at least 80 hours creating all of the Bronco characters. I’ve never spent so much time on a project in my life, and I would at least like to share it with those that were meant to enjoy. I’m very proud of it and very sad that it will not come home in your child’s backpack.
If you would like to view/download the yearbook, go to:
I am leaving off the link because like Bubble Dame says the kid’s pics should not be put out there and because I don’t want to be “outing” anyone. I will say that when the petition part of all this came around it was not made clear that there were copyright things going on. I think it just worried people that the yearbook wouldn’t come out period. And that it would cost the PTA $18,000.
And the volunteer should have used previous yearbooks as a guide. If the school had issues with the pictures, then she should have made adjustments. And we downloaded the digital version last night…the graphics are nice, but yearbooks are about kids remembering the school year. Time spent on creating graphics are no reason for this volunteer to act like a child herself.
In the end, the overzealous mother should have turned her work over to the PTA to do whatever modifications needed to be done. She doesn’t “win” by copyrighting this book. And the kids are going to lose by having a revised crappy yearbook thrown together at the very last minute.
Piss poor on both sides.
I can already see new district policy on yearbooks for next year: One standard photo of each child, period. They must all be wearing white, collared shirts so no one stands out. No casual shots. A committee of at least a dozen.