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Lifetouch takes blame for yearbook picture fiasco; vice president apologizes for “a serious error in judgement”
Lifetouch Vice President John Bryant explains how a small picture snowballed into a huge scandal. John Coleman/McKinney Courier-Gazette
By Paul Gosling, McKinney Courier-Gazette
“Entirely unacceptable,” said John Bryant, Lifetouch vice president of his company’s behavior in digitally altering pictures in the McKinney High School yearbook.
Emerging from a three-hour long meeting with district officials including yearbook editor Lori Oglesbee and MHS Principal Stewart Herrison, Bryant said, “We are sorry for the pain we have put parents, students and yearbook staff through. Lori [Oglesbee] and her staff have worked day-in and day-out all year long. To get to the end of the year and have this happen, well…”
Lifetouch has agreed to pay to have the yearbook reprinted and, as a small token gesture, has offered to sponsor the journalism banquet at MHS next Tuesday.
Bryant confirmed that images that were being worked on became cropped and were saved at a high resolution. The photos were then altered once it was realized that it was too late to resize them.
Pictures were cropped because the initial photography had not followed the industry standard of shooting all photographs the same size.
Bryant attributed the decision to alter photographs to an individual employee and called it a “serious error in judgment."
Bryant added disciplinary action against the unnamed employee will be dealt with internally. “We are taking this very seriously,” he said.
“Excellent,” said district spokesman Cody Cunningham when asked about the outcome of the meeting.
Cunningham stated, “We’ve established best practices [in yearbook production] that are industry standards. The students put a lot of time and pride into the yearbook. We feel like we’ve all come together for the students.”
Lifetouch also hopes to send a letter of apology to every parent affected by the yearbook picture problems.
Contact staff writer Paul Gosling at pgosling@acnpapers.com.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
debra wrote on May 20, 2008 8:39 AM:
" The explanation the company is providing still does not make sense to me. Students were reporting changes such as female heads on male bodies. What does that have to do with cropping and re-sizing? And the school had problems with the same vendor the previous year. I think the company needs to do more to restore their reputation because right now if I were a school administrator this vendor would be off my list. "
Judgment with an E wrote on May 20, 2008 9:13 AM:
" Your paper cannot spell basic words correctly, even the ones in headlines, how embarrassing! "
Tom Waits wrote on May 20, 2008 10:01 AM:
" Does the district have some sort of non-negotiable deal with Lifetouch? This is the second year in a row (that I'm aware of) to have problems with this firm, and it sounds like the MISD isn't even considering other options. I'll grant that the district spokesman is ready with cliches and buzzwords ("we've established 'best practices' that are industry standards") but the MISD should--in like lingo--'think out of the box' here. It needs to 'push the envelope' and seek new possibilities. Or, at the least, how about a few bids for next year's contract? "
Christina wrote on May 20, 2008 3:46 PM:
" I have had similar issues with Lifetouch. I feel that they need to be held responsible. "
Judgment with an E wrote on May 20, 2008 10:07 PM:
" Main Entry: judgment
Variant(s): or judgement \ˈjəj-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 13th century
1 a: a formal utterance of an authoritative opinion b: an opinion so pronounced
2 a: a formal decision given by a court b (1): an obligation (as a debt) created by the decree of a court (2): a certificate evidencing such a decree
3 acapitalized : the final judging of humankind by God b: a divine sentence or decision; specifically : a calamity held to be sent by God
4 a: the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing b: an opinion or estimate so formed
5 a: the capacity for judging : discernment b: the exercise of this capacity
6: a proposition stating something believed or asserted "
Variant(s): or judgement \ˈjəj-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 13th century
1 a: a formal utterance of an authoritative opinion b: an opinion so pronounced
2 a: a formal decision given by a court b (1): an obligation (as a debt) created by the decree of a court (2): a certificate evidencing such a decree
3 acapitalized : the final judging of humankind by God b: a divine sentence or decision; specifically : a calamity held to be sent by God
4 a: the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing b: an opinion or estimate so formed
5 a: the capacity for judging : discernment b: the exercise of this capacity
6: a proposition stating something believed or asserted "
Voracious Reader wrote on May 21, 2008 10:44 AM:
" 'Judgment with an E,' I think your point would have been clearer if you'd left it at the succinct first comment. Now you're acting like a ten-year-old bully whose only technique is to waggle his fingers from the sides of his head and chant 'Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyaaaah-nya.' "
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