Parents Upset Over 'Degrading,' 'Offensive' Class Photo At Sawgrass Elementary School

[Spazito]

14. it seems it was the PTA that requested the 'smiley face'...

as opposed to it being the photographer who made that decision. Here is his explanation:

"As he tells it, after the picture was taken a liaison with the Parent Teacher's Association, that helped organize the photo shoot at the school, notified them that two of the students pictured needed to be removed because their parents did not sign a consent form.

Claussen said he was able to use the photo editing software Adobe Photoshop to lift one of the kids out, but had explained to them that there was a problem with the second student. He was sitting in the front row, right in the middle.

He showed me the notes he had written down on a white piece of paper as the pair discussed what to do. He said he would have gladly come out there to reshoot the image. Instead there was talk about putting a star over his face and then, he said, the P.T.A. asked him to place a smiley face.

He's never received a request like that before. In the nearly four decades he's been in business he told Local 10 he's never done such a thing."

http://www.local10.com/news/Parents-call-school-photo-offensive-degrading/-/1717324/10151720/-/2yu1sjz/-/