An Emmaus High School sports team went undefeated last year, but there’s no mention of the record in the yearbook. In fact, the fact that there was a school rifle team at all was left out. The photographer for the yearbook provided a photo to the staff, but the yearbook advisor is so far not answering questions from parents about why their children were left out of the yearbook while other teams were featured. It’s great that the parents are taking this issue all the way to the top and demanding public accountability for why the yearbook staff appears to be picking on some kids by leaving them out of the yearbook even after being provided pictures and a story.
I actually came across this story by chance when I was looking up the school because they are in need of a new rifle coach – pronto. They aren’t the only school in the area in need, as Freedom High School nearby also needs a rifle coach. If you know anyone who would be interesting in coaching a high school rifle team in the Allentown region, please shoot me an email and I’ll connect you with the people looking to help these teams out.
It would be a shame if the yearbook staff who may have decided that competitive shooters aren’t even worth acknowledging as their fellow students won by not only successfully ignoring the team’s existence, but then also got to celebrate the fact that the team was forced to disband.
I suppose to be fair we ought to find out if other small but highly successful clubs were excluded so we’ll have a better idea whether this was actually malice or simply incompetence.
If it turns out it was intentional, it would be worth comparing the carnage caused by members of the rifle team – both in and out of competition – to the carnage caused by competitive groups that were included in the year book. I’d bet everything I owned that you high school shooting teams go decades without compiling the record of death and maiming that results from a single high school football season.
That’s why they questioned everyone from the athletic director to the photographer to the yearbook advisor. The athletic director says he had nothing to do with any yearbook decisions, and the photographer says he took the team picture and delivered it to yearbook staff. (There was a parent who was emailed a copy of it to prove that it was taken.) The yearbook advisor claimed that it’s a possibility they received it late, but isn’t actually answer specific questions.
There don’t appear to be any other concerns about the yearbook, simply the removal of the rifle team that had an undefeated season. Regardless of the size of their sport, an undefeated season would be worthy enough of mention.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unsympathetic to the hassle of putting together a yearbook. I was on the yearbook staff in high school, and I was usually one of the people stuck making new page layouts when something was delayed. But, I do have to admit that I find it a bit odd why everyone else can seem to account for their role, but the yearbook advisor is a bit evasive. If a team or club didn’t get a picture in time, that should have been well documented because someone should have been following up to try and get the picture included.
Second on this comment. Who else might have been left out?
I was in a couple groups in HS that got omitted from the yearbook, or got an … underwhelming mention (if any) for a stellar year’s work. I can understand the frustration.
The deadline issue smells like a cop-out answer, but its validity should be easy enough to determine with a few questions: When was the rifle team’s “season” completed? When was the rifle team photo taken and submitted? Were either of those two dates after the conclusion of the baseball team’s season? (If they have a baseball team, it’s almost certain they got a full article with photos.)
Depending on the cause of this and how they eventually resolve it, I’m not as inclined to get overly upset. However, if I found out the omission of an entire school team – an undefeated one at that – was intentional and attributed to “political correctness,” and they presented/offered no resolution for the oversight, I’d be livid. Absolutely. Livid.
Like I said, I understand the need to hear it out. The reason I find it all a little too suspicious is because the yearbook advisor seems, based on this article, to be the only person not being very open and forthcoming about his role in the situation.
If it is determined that the advisor somehow purposely left them out….that person should be made to pay for an entire reprinting.
There are schools close to me with fantastic indoor ranges for ROTC, etc. and they are NOT used. I wonder how the future of firearms & shooting in general is to survive when our education system teaches youth that guns are evil.
I for one don’t think the exclusion of a shooting team was unintentional. YMMV.