Mom Says Keeping Her Son Out of Class Photo is (Literally) Bad Form

This is why I live in the UK, I guess.
Also: Spam spam spam....

Its not the entire state, its only the city

First off Tomball, Texas is NOT SOUTHEAST of Houston it is NORTHWEST of Houston.

Actually that's not true at all. The questions they are asking in the form are required by law for the health and welfare of your child. Same questions you get asked by law each year you visit your child's pediatrician for developmental checkup.

The problem isn't the personal questions on the form which are reported to all state agencies to insure your child's health. The problem is that this school isn't using a standard state form that specifies each possible answer you could give. It actually sounds like they are combining several questions into one to either shorten the form to make it easier or to hide something from the parents. It's also pretty suspicious that on a standard state form where the author is the people of Texas and not the school, they would be unwilling to respond to interview questions about the form itself.

Dear Mr Henderson:
I believe if the registration form is too long that should have
been decided before printed seeing all the legal beagle stuff
thrown in I would be in a state of questioning why all of this!!
Even if her kid had a learning disablity there is no reason to
exclude him from his classmates. Kid's look back at what
they looked at in younger years because they constantly
beg parent's to measure their height. Unless there are
special circumstances like a parent in prison it still doesn't
make sense to me. That's private information that need not
be divulged. I feel sorry for that child! My heart goes out
to him. He did nothing wrong! He will take it as he did something
wrong or he would be with his classmates! If cost was an issue
than just keep the class picture. Judy Wisboro

Ed, as soon as I read where it said Tomball was Northeast of Houston I thought...HUH? Not when I lived in Houston! Must have moved it :o)

Oops, I meant to say when I lived in Houston Tomball was Northwest, not Southeast of Houston.

Why can't the Tomball school district amend their privacy forms to separate yearbook pictures from other media? That shouldn't be that big of a deal. (And Tomball is located northwest of Houston.)

Maybe Mom should read the forms before she signs them next time.

Why the NNACP, is he black?
Second off, it is the school district not the state so the state isn't acting like a country. This is a school district in a very small town.
Third these questions are asked because every one gets an attorney. Just as you suggested they get one. Lastly most people like the questions and protection. This one person isn't going to change anything.

I agree that school district representatives believe they are Gods, and if they feel you are doing something they don't like, such as withholding your child from media exploitation, they "make you pay for it" in other ways, such as keeping your child from school photos and year books. I do genealogy research for myself and others who request it. It has been very beneficial and enlightening to many people to see school class lists, school photos, and grade/ accomplishment information of ancestors. I would think the class photos would be of historical importance to a school as well. At the very least, they should allow parents to give "specific" approval or disapproval of such important things as school photos and yearbooks at the time they are done. This seems to go over the line to me. We have withheld permission for years for children in my family for certain media interviews because of a traumatic experience of a child who was embarrassed about something she said in an interview, which showed up on tv, because she was later laughed at for the remark. It has never prevented the children from being included in school yearbooks, nor from class photos.

Why the NAACP?

I too, believe it is the district/school where the child resides who need to change/amend their policies for school photos. They need to be more specific when it comes to media, photo, and newspapers. We live where we have to sign media, press and photo releases. Each one has a separate paragragh defining what each is to include (ie: school video, local tv stations, newspapers, etc.) and then you choose to accept or decline your child's photo to be used. My husband and I choose which we would allow for our kids and they are kept in their files as well as their teacher's. If a new opportunity opens up during the school year for photo and/or press releases, we are asked to sign another form where it states specifically what the event is. It saddens me to think that something so small as to allow a child to be left out of his own class photo to exist. My heart goes out to the child and to his family. We too, have a 7 year old who would be devastated if he couldn't participate. I feel the school should just allow the boy to be in the photo as long as the parents write a letter and sign it. That way, the school and district would not be held liable for any problems that may never occur.

The photo permission question is there for a very valid reason. Sometimes children are in foster care or have been in abusive situations and need to be shielded for a variety of reasons. In such cases, a class picture in the yearbook would be just as dangerous as "media" coverage. If there are no such extenuating circumstances, the mom should have been more careful in filling out the form. School officials have a legal responsibility to protect the students and assumed that there was a valid reason why the mother signed the no-consent option.

Why would the NAACP be interested in this, unless he is black. Don't you mean the ACLU?

yeah,give it to the naacp.by next week your kid will be the king of his school district.he'll get a welfare check and everyone will have to do what he says or they will get locked up for a hate crimes.and then jesse showed up................................

NAACP is not just for black people. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all people and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination"

How is this a race issue?

tell them you will go to the media and the reporters teacher had no right to say that get a lawyer and sue them go to the school board