I've heard about this story and wasn't really going to comment on it,but thought after seeing it online and the picture that was submitted it was worthy of some commentary. Sure the picture is a nice photo for a modeling agency portfolio, but traditional yearbook photos should be used in High School yearbooks. High School yearbooks should set a standard of what is appropriate for students to wear and students should be informed that standard school dress code rules should be adhered to in yearbook photos. I don't know if this was stated before she submitted her photo, but it seems common sense for most. I know in my yearbook photo I,like many other girls, wore a sweater! Others wore dresses and the majority of boys wore suits with shirts&ties or sweaters.

According to the article, Colorado state law says the students have a right to freedom of expression, but why have school laws and codes of conduct if the states can override them? Schools should be able to enforce their student codes of conduct and dress codes, otherwise students would be allowed to wear what they want to school anytime and claim freedom of expression. While I am a proponent of free speech and freedoms, if adults don't set standards for students through laws and guidelines then they will do what they want and schools will have no power over them. Students who attend schools that require uniforms are often private schools, but I have taught in public schools who require them to avoid gang activity and violence. I don't know if uniforms actually prevent this behavior or not,but I think it makes choosing clothes for school less of a problem for students and keeps the family budget in check when back to school shopping.

The picture below shows 18 year old Sydney Spies wearing a black shawl with a yellow mini skirt revealing her shoulders and midsection. The pose is somewhat seductive and in my opinion it is not appropriate for a school dance nor school setting so why should it be appropriate for a school yearbook? It's a cute outfit to go out on the town but not to flaunt in your senior picture. Of course now the point is almost moot because she has received national media attention and has gone on national television discussing her story and sharing her controversial picture. I'm sure it was a great way to help get the attention of modeling agencies and who knows maybe she'll get her first gig in an upcoming Playboy.

Television viewers across the country are up on the controversy since Spies and her mother appeared Monday in a 6½-minute spot on the “Today Show.”

Durango Herald website

This screen capture from The Durango Herald website shows Spies being interviewed Monday on NBC’s “Today Show.”

Courtesy of Miki Spies

Miki Spies, mother of Durango High School senior Sydney Spies, provided this photo of Sydney Spies taken by Thru the Lens Photography. The photo was rejected by student editors of the Durango High School yearbook for use as Sydney Spies’ senior portrait.

News of the dispute – which started when the photo Spies, an 18-year-old Durango High School student and aspiring model, submitted for her senior portrait was rejected – first appeared in The Durango Herald last week. As of Monday evening, stories about it on the Herald’s website had garnered more than 1 million page views.

In the photo, Spies is wearing a sheer yellow skirt and a black scarf that exposes her shoulders and midriff.

“This photo represents who I am. I want to be a model. I’m a dancer, and I feel like administration isn’t allowing me to show that,” Spies said in an interview last week.

A second photo Spies submitted for the yearbook, in a sheer black dress, also was denied by student editors, who worried the racy photos were unprofessional.

During a sit-down interview with “Today Show” anchor Matt Lauer, Spies, seated with her mother, Miki Spies, accused the editors of changing their position under pressure from the administration.

Administrators and the yearbook adviser have denied influencing the students’ decision.

During the segment about Spies, which appeared as the NBC morning show celebrated its 60th anniversary, the student editors, in a recorded interview at DHS, said the photo wasn’t in keeping with the quality of the publication.

Spies told Lauer she is still holding out hope the yearbook staff will reverse its decision and let her use the picture, which she called “artistic.”

Miki Spies told Lauer she initially had reservations about submitting the photo.

“I asked her not to do it,” she said. “I said, ‘Sydney, really, is this the one you want?’”

But she said she came to accept the decision.

“When your child is spreading her wings, you just want to come alongside and support them. That’s what I’m doing as a mother,” she told Lauer.

Sydney Spies said she has been told the photo can still appear, but as a paid “senior advertisement,” which appear at the end of the yearbook.

The Spieses could not be reached Monday afternoon, and DHS administration did not return calls seeking comment.

A poll on the “Today Show” website asked viewers if they thought the photo was “too inappropriate” to go in the a yearbook. Seventy-seven percent, or 134,318 votes, indicted “yes” as of Monday evening.

©2008 Patricia Garza