Sydney Spies: Teen Fights Racy Yearbook Photo Ban

By Kris Coombs, Christian Post Contributor Monday, January 09, 2012

Sydney Spies, an 18-year high school senior from Colorado is fighting her school’s decision to ban a raunchy photograph she chose to use as her yearbook photo, but the yearbook’s editors are refusing to change their minds.

“We are an award-winning yearbook. We don’t want to diminish the quality with something that can be seen as unprofessional,” student Brian Jaramillo, one of the yearbook’s five-student editor’s, told the Durango Herald on Thursday.

The editors told the paper that they were in charge of selecting the photos that make the yearbook and would not publish a picture of Spies posing suggestively in a revealing black top and short yellow skirt as her senior picture.

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“I feel like they aren’t allowing me to have my freedom of expression,” Spies told the Herald. “I think the administration is wrong in this situation, and I don’t want this to happen to other people.”

On Wednesday, Spies and her mother, along with several Durango High students and alumni protested outside the school, but were told Spies’ photo would not be allowed because it was a violation of the school’s dress code.

Student editor Trevor Trujillo told the Durango Herald that Spies was offered the opportunity to use the photo in the yearbook, but just not as her senior portrait.

“If she (Spies) chooses to, the picture will run as her senior ad, not her senior portrait,” Trujillo told the Herald.

Spies, still dissatisfied, held a meeting with herself, the school’s principal, Diane Lashinsky, and her mother on Friday.

The Durango School District issued a statement to ABCNews.com following the meeting.

“The editors of Durango High School’s yearbook informed a senior student in December that her photo in question would not be included as a senior portrait in the yearbook and asked her to submit a replacement. Durango School District 9-R’s administration supports this decision.”

Before the meeting, Spies and her family told the local media they were planning on meeting with a civil lawyer in Denver to look over the teen’s case.

“The editors all turned their backs on me and changed their minds,” Spies told the Herald. “I really do feel like they were intimidated by the principal.”