- The Washington Times - Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Utah high school is under fire for using Photoshop to cover up the bare skin and bare arms of female students’ yearbook photographs without their knowledge or permission.

Several girls complained to Wasatch High School officials, after seeing that the Photoshop work even put them in different outfits, the Daily Mail reported. For instance, one girl who work a sleeveless tank-type top for her photo said the picture that came back in her yearbook showed her in a black scooped neck T-shirt with sleeves.

Moreover, some of the photo changes seemed to be made completely arbitrarily, the girls complained. Two girls wore nearly identical sleeveless tops to the photo shoot, but ultimately, one girl’s final picture included sleeves while the other’s did not, the Daily Mail reported.

“I feel like they put names in a hat and pick and choose who” gets the Photoshop treatment, sophomore Rachel Russell told WGHP News. “There were plenty of girls [who] were wearing thicker tank tops, and half of them got edited and half of them didn’t.”

And whoever did the Photoshop apparently wasn’t that skilled, the Daily Mail said.

“My shirt was a cream color and the color of the cover-up was completely white. It looked like ’Wite-Out’ on my skin,” said another sophomore, Kimberly Montoya.

The school district superintendent, Terry Shoemaker, defended the policy and said the editing was in line with the posted modesty dress code. The superintendent also admitted, however, that the school could have been more consistent, the Daily Mail reported.

The school dress code bans “extreme clothing [like] revealing shorts, skirts, dresses, tank shirts, halter or crop tops, spaghetti straps, etc.”

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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