Trump T-shirt censored in yearbook photo
WALL, Grant Berardo couldn’t vote for Donald Trump last year, but the Wall Township High School junior certainly could wear a T-shirt with his name on it. Or so he thought. With his parents’ permission, Grant took his school pictures wearing a navy blue Trump campaign shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Make America Great Again.”
But when Grant, 17, flipped to the yearbook page with his picture, he was shocked: Instead of the campaign shirt he wore that day, he was shown in a nondescript black T-shirt.
“It was Photoshopped” to remove the Trump message, Grant said.
“I sent it to my mom and dad, just like, ‘You won’t believe this.’ I was just overall disappointed,” he said. “I like Trump, but it’s history, too. Wearing that shirt memorializes the time.”
Wall Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyer said Friday she was investigating why it happened and who was responsible but did not condone the digital alteration.
“I am quite disturbed by the entire situation,” she said, declining to comment further. A spokesman for Jostens, the company that takes the photographs and prints the yearbooks, did not respond to requests for comment.
It’s not immediately clear whether the change was made by someone from the school district or photography company.
The only reason a student’s image would be altered is if it was in violation of the dress code — clothing referencing drugs, alcohol or violence, Dyer said.
“Political shirts are absolutely not a violation of the dress code” and there’s no policy prohibiting political messages in school pictures, she added.
In an interview, Joseph Berardo Jr. — Grant’s father — called for the school to recall the yearbooks and reissue new ones with the unaltered photo. He said he would consider legal action if that doesn’t happen.