A number of students dislike looking at their school ID and seeing a different version of themself. Bleached buzz cuts have grown out, braces are off, and it is upsetting many students. While Campolindo does give the opportunity to retake their yearbook photo, there is no reason why students can not do the same for school ID pictures.
Students have had a whole summer to take advantage of the time to become the best versions of themselves and become more confident in their style. Junior Jackson McCreadie stated, ”I feel like summer is a huge time for growth and change since we have 3 months to ourselves. It feels like the picture shows us from last year and does not show the growth we have made this year.” The staff at Campolindo are not taking into account the feelings of every kid sitting in their classroom. Unlike a drivers license picture that doesn’t expire for a decade, school ID pictures need to represent the students’ growth throughout the years.
Junior Liv Maestre agrees with McCreadie’s thoughts stating, “I really feel like it’s unfair that I have to look at a picture constantly that doesn’t represent my new style. I feel like we should take our yearbook pictures and ID pictures at the same time and not the year before because we have all changed, and I don’t feel confident showing others my ID picture because it shows a version of myself that I want to leave in the past.”
Maestre also spoke about how there could be an alternative system that would help make students feel more comfortable when they pull out their ID. “I think we should take our yearbook and ID pictures at the beginning of the school year and each grade could have a separate time to get their photo done so it’s not too crowded. I think that would help everyone. Retaking my picture also is annoying because there is a long line which also represents how many people dislike their photo. Doing retakes is an inconvenience and shouldn’t be necessary.”
Even though retakes are an option for students who would like to retake their yearbook photo, Maestre spoke on the inconvenience it can serve for students. If we all took our pictures at the same time, yes there would be a long line, but it’s much easier for us students to not have to go out of our way to retake our pictures because there is a fair amount of people who want to retake their photos, which speaks volumes.
Junior Molly O’Riordan agreed with both McCreadie and Maestre about photo retakes and how we all change and how our development over the years needs to be up to date and shown. O’Riordan said, “I think people can change a lot over the summer throughout the year. Having a photo from the previous year being used for the next is unrealistic. And for the people who want to do retakes, it must be annoying.”
Students feel frustrated with the school ID and yearbook system and there should be a change. Campolindo knows this, and students should be given a chance to show off their new style, just like how staff should give the chance for students to be given this opportunity. Campolindo staff should change their ways of going about taking school pictures. They should be taken in the fall and be used for both school ID photos along with yearbook pictures. This is a solution that would make students feel confident when looking at their school ID photo.
