Responses
James, 9/29/2005, 11:14:04 PM
My only concerns are over Most Spoiled and Biggest Flirt. However, if the school always has used these and it's just a part of the way things are there then I doubt there will be any problem with them.
Chris, 9/30/2005, 6:43:02 PM
We do not do them at all, the potential for problems is too great. This was also advised by our publishing company.
Joe, 10/5/2005, 6:13:42 AM
We use class clown and biggest flirt. The others are pretty bad.
Chad Rummel, 10/7/2005, 11:31:45 AM
Class clown...did you hear of the student voted "class clown" who, later in life, wanted an internship, but the person offering the internship had a student in the boy's class back in high school. As you can imagine, the yearbook surfaced, the employer saw that the boy didn't take school seriously and thought he probably wouldn't take the job seriously either. Internship DENIED. He then, in turn, sued the school. (substitute teacher's pest, and the story holds true)
Is that worth it?
Or the girl voted most spoiled, who later wanted a job, but the yearbook surfaced and people realized she was "spoiled" and never worked for anything in her life. Job DENIED. She then, in turn, sued the school. (substitute teacher's pet and this story holds true)
Is that worth it?
Or the boy who wanted to date a girl, but the yearbook surfaced and the potential girlfriend saw he was a flirt. Relationship DENIED. He then, in turn, sued the school.
Is that worth it?
Also, it's never a good idea to do superlatives for anything that is genetic (best smile, best car, best hair, etc). Superlatives, if they exist, should be rewards for accomplishments.
Just my thoughts.
--c
Pat , 10/9/2005, 1:51:31 PM
My personal opinion is to get rid of them for many of the aforementioned reasons, but since it sounds like you are stuck with them this year, how about changing your categories to things like: Most Likely to win an Oscar; Most Likely to be on the cover of Vogue; Most Likely to be the next Bill Gates, etc. That way you get rid of "best" categories. I also think you should have a discussion about a yearbook not being negative in any way, They are around too long and definitive statements (which are really opinions) come back to haunt you.
Mallory , 10/9/2005, 9:47:46 PM
I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of my High School yearbook and this year and we also chose to alter our Senior Superlatives Categories, but we felt that adding Biggest Flirt and Worst Case of Senioritis, and contiuing to use Teacher's Pet and Class Clown still add some fun to the yearbook. One way we have been able to make sure these nominations aren't offensive is to approach each of the category winners and have them sign a sheet of paper saying that they accept the nomination, or decline the nomination if they feel they are being mocked or made fun of. We did, however, remove some such as best car (we felt that not everyone would have an equal opportunity to win based on financial status). These are some suggestions you can present to your staff and then they will be happy to have their fun categories and you can be satisfied that the people winning the categories are not offended and will not bring about any negative reprocussions (and you will have the signed acceptance sheets to prove that the nominee was happy with the nomination in case the student does try to say he was pictured in the yearbook in a category he/she did not want to be placed in). I hope my views as a high school student will help you decide how you can keep your staff happy and cooperative and also prevent any negative responses to your yearbook. Good Luck. :-)
--Mallory--
Susan, 10/27/2005, 10:28:36 PM
I was in the same situation several years ago and simply didn't do them. I stressed journalism and professionalism. Unless your senior class does this as part of the school year then you are not covering anything. You are making up things to put in the book. Journalists do not make things up. They cover events. I still have the occasional grumblers because they "Think it's cute", but they usually see my point when I put it that way. The fact we win lots of awards without them doesn't hurt either.
Laura, 11/4/2005, 10:41:23 PM
Those categories are tame compared to my school's. Some of ours are "Most likely to marry and divorce 12 times", "Most likely to end up in jail", "best liar", "biggest slacker", and "biggest troublemaker", just to name a few. We have used these several times and have never had a problem. Everyone knows that it's all in fun and not to take it seriously. The winners this year were cool with it and were able to laugh at themselves without being offended.
Lauren, 11/13/2005, 1:55:06 AM
This is all rediculous. It's a long-standing tradition that people love. It's something many people looks back on fondly. Class clown? "Oh yeah, those kids were hilarious! Haha!..."
As long as everyone in the senior class has the opportunity to vote, it shouldn't be a problem. If the yearbook staff or student government is selecting the winners, that's wrong, but if everyone helps decide then it's okay. If you're that worried, put in a disclaimer.
Laura Fong, 2/11/2006, 2:20:19 AM
As a journalist and newspaper editor, I agree that the Popularity polls are unprofessional for a newspaper, and should be left to the yearbook.
People at my school think they are fun to speculate about, but no one really takes them at all that seriously. If the staff were worried about libel, then they should get signed permission forms from the "popular" people as Mallory suggested.
Tiffany K., 2/23/2006, 7:20:38 PM
Does anyone have a list of the "best...", "worst...", "Most likely to..." etc.? Our school is going to do this but we desperately need some new ones - and maybe some old ones for tradition. Thank you!
