NEW JERSEY HIGH SCHOOL UNDER FIRE FOR ERASING TRUMP SLOGANS FROM YEARBOOK
Parents at a high school in New Jersey are absolutely livid after their kids’ yearbook was photo shopped to remove references to President Donald Trump.
A student sat for his portrait, he put on a navy blue T-shirt that said "Trump Make America Great Again" but the President’s name and campaign slogan were removed from the yearbook.
"We didn't have a dress code," Grant Berardo, a 17-year-old junior at Wall Township High School in Wall, N.J., told reporters. "The seniors (boys) have to wear black jackets and ties, but the underclassmen don't have a dress code."
A junior classmate also had "Trump" and MAGA in small print removed from a fleece vest. A third student, the president of the freshman class revealed that her yearbook quote was left blank after she had chosen a quote by President Donald Trump which reads: "I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big."
“I want all the yearbooks reissued. Everybody gets a brand-new yearbook,” said Joseph Berardo, Grant’s father.
“And I want a letter from the administration explaining why the yearbooks are being reissued, and it should be used as a teaching moment related to the First Amendment in civil discourse,” Joseph Berardo continued.
Joseph Berardo also pointed out that this was the first election his son took an interest in. “It was the first election he took an interest in, and it was an interesting way to memorialize it,” an obviously disappointed Berardo said.
He was also quick to observe that not all students had their wears censored. He made particular reference to a student wearing a New Jersey Devils shirt and a kid in a Led Zeppelin tee.
He also spoke about past yearbooks that had President Barack Obama’s imprints.
“I don’t think there was a deep-seated plot here, but I think there’s a yearbook committee and a yearbook adviser, and somewhere in the mix someone or several people decided to censor three students,” Berardo said. “The fact that the committee found it OK to censor the president’s name or anything that wasn’t offensive is just wrong.”
The school’s yearbook adviser reacted to the controversy by saying, “We have never made any action against any political party.” When asked if she knew who scrubbed the Trump images, she said, “I’m going to hang up.”