The administrative decision to not feature senior quotes within the 2019-2020 yearbook was based on reasons such as spacing, problematic quotes from the previous year and the process of reviewing 530 quotes. 

The school currently hosts the largest number of students in its history at about 2350, with the number of students attending last year being closer to 2000. This means the yearbook would have to accommodate for the large increase in the student body.

“Senior quotes take away a lot of space in the book,” yearbook advisor Emily Ramser said, “We are having to be very conscientious, as the school gets bigger, of what is being put where and how much space it will take.”

Also, last year a senior had an inappropriate quote that made it through the checking process, and that caused the yearbook staff and faculty to help fix the mistake.

“We had to spend four hours putting stickers over that quote on each and every book, and there were a lot of books,” said Ramser. 

The quotes this year would’ve had to be reviewed by several of the yearbook staff members as well as several adults on campus. This caused administrators and staff to have concerns about time and the possibility of inappropriate quotes getting through in the future. 

“I am not always hip with the lingo,” Ramser said, “Y’all will say things that I don’t entirely know what it means and they’re things that can get through that might not be appropriate for school that we are simply unaware of.”

The response from the senior class has been generally negative and has students talking about the representation in these kinds of decisions. One student said she would have liked a conversation to take place instead of it being “gone without a trace.” Other students are upset because of the quote from last year.

“We are the first class to attend all four years,” said one senior, “and because students last year messed it up, we don’t have an opportunity.”

With the lack of senior quotes, the yearbook staff has been working on a new idea for an alternative to help the seniors make their mark on the yearbook. 

One student who is not apart of yearbook thought a senior time capsule would be a good idea. 

“We could take a balloon, write it down, put it in the balloon and fly it,” she said.

Other students thought of having more senior pictures featured throughout the yearbook, or answering questions about a most memorable moment. 

The yearbook staff created an alternative that is currently being called, “Our Senior Signatures”. These will show what the seniors have learned and what they have done throughout their four years.

“It will be a space where seniors can talk about senior wisdom and positive messages, definitely positive messages,” Ramser said.

With the alternative, seniors will be able to submit messages to the yearbook and a number of them will be picked and featured throughout the yearbook. 

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