School Pulls Yearbook Article That Mocks Cheerleaders' Uniforms
Girls show more leg than Daisy Duke, offending piece says.
June 2, 2011 -- It's "Glee" meets "Mean Girls" at River City High School in West Sacramento, Calif., where officials stopped the presses on the school yearbook because of a nasty article about the cheerleading squad 's short skirts.
"Who Wears Short Shorts?" was the headline on the piece that appeared on pages 182-83 of the yearbook, distributed last Friday.
The piece, written by a 16-year-old girl who was rejected when she tried out for cheerleading, mocks the squad's uniforms.
It describes the girls as showing "more leg than Daisy Duke" and being "dolled up in micromini uniforms," "strolling down halls" with "blatant disregard" for the high school's dress code. Several pictures accompanying the article focus on the girls' legs -- with skirts particularly short during a half-time dance routine.
"It's disparaging. It incites some drama," says Dayton Gilleland, superintendent of Washington Unified School District. "I don't consider it heinous. It's inappropriate and should not have been published."
Gilleland said distribution of the yearbook was stopped after the article caused a flap when the yearbook became available on Friday.
"That's when it became evident to the principal that we had a problem," he said.
The principal, Katie Nemer, had not been aware of the article, though a vice principal and a yearbook advisor hestitated to change the student written piece.
Nemer explained that their supervisory role is aimed at helping the students train to be journalists.
That stance angered Michelle Gully, whose daughter, Breannah, is on the cheerleading squad. "My concern is they're letting the students write this, edit this and print this," she told ABC News Affiliate KXTV.
"Ugh! I was really mad. I was just shaking," Breannah told the station, describing how she felt when she picked up her yearbook. "Everyone had to tell me to calm down.... I called my mom, and I was crying."
Nemer said the article should not have appeared.
"In terms of the yearbook that's a memory book. It was out of place. You want to look back at your yearbook 50 years from now and say, 'didn't we have fun in high school.'"
She said a new article has been written and will be stuck over the "Daisy Duke" piece by staff.
Distribution of the yearbook, which costs about $75, will resume shortly.
The student who wrote the story "felt terrible," Nemer said.
She is an excellent student and "she didn't write it with a mean spirit," she said.
In a written apology, the student, a junior said, "I did not mean for this spread to be malicious or malcontent in any way. While I did try out for the team in 2009, I carry no resentment toward the cheerleaders or their families."
For now, no one has been disciplined at River City High School.
"Everyone has apologized, made up and moved on, said Nemer. "This is a learning experience."
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