Mount Everett students wear tank tops for their yearbook photos. The school says no, pointing to ‘unfortunate connotations’ | Southern Berkshires
A group of Mount Everett High School juniors took their yearbook photos in tank tops. But the administration didn’t have it.
SHEFFIELD – Fruit of the Loom calls it the “A-Shirt”.
Hanes, Calvin Klein, and other clothing manufacturers simply refer to it as a “tank top”.
The sleeveless undershirt with the narrow cuffs over the shoulders also has other names. “Frau Schläger” is one. Another term uses a word that is derogatory to Italians.
Some Mount Everett High School grade 11 boys say that when they wore matching white tank tops for their yearbook photos this school year, they just wanted to show their camaraderie in a silly, informal way and that they didn’t mean to be offended. However, when the school officials saw the photos, they used their privilege to determine that the photos “will not be usable”.
In an email to students and parents on November 12, the school said the decision was based on “the unfortunate connotations that white tank tops have”. The school also stressed that it did not believe the boys had any bad intentions. This email and follow-up emails were shared with The Eagle by a parent.
The decision openly questioned at least one student and two parents whether the school over-analyzed the importance of a shared garment.
“I don’t feel outraged or anything,” said Amy Cohen, one of the mothers. “I think it’s kind of a fun mark of the times, right? There’s a lot of ado about nothing. … Nowadays anything can be interpreted as offensive. The political climate is such that you have to be super sensitive about everything. And maybe that’s good in a way, but maybe it’s almost just too much. “
In that case, she said, it’s too much.
Director Jesse Carpenter did not respond to requests for comment from The Eagle.
Charles Vion, one of the boys who wore a tank top, explained that a friend brought the matching shirts to school on photo day as “a group thing …”
“The photographer seemed to like it, so we’ll all have our photos taken,” he said. “And now, a month or two later, she emails us saying that she can’t use the images because of the negative connotation. I think it would be okay if they told us when we took the photos what is okay and what is not. “
Eight boys wore the tank top for their individual portraits. The boys also posed for a group photo while wearing the tank tops.
Some boys were also portrayed wearing a normal shirt. For those who did not, the school provided an opportunity to retake their photos. One suggestion that the school offered to all boys was to have a scarf digitally processed on the original photos, presumably to partially block the white tank top and at the same time to maintain a uniform appearance.
Charles’ mother, Jen Brown, said some of the boys indicated that their photos would be taken again. She said others could choose the scarf. Your son Charles has not yet made up his mind.
Brown said she was concerned about an email exchange with a school official who was using the derogatory term for the tank top to explain the negative connotations.
“I had never heard that phrase before,” said Brown, who noted that the boy who came up with the idea for the tank top was of Italian descent.
The eagle received a copy of a group photo of the eight friends. The boys are of different races.
“This is not a bunch of rich white children making fun of people in a bad socio-economic situation,” she said. “It’s not that at all.”