Jennifer Moody

My boss wrote an editorial recently that mentioned an unfortunate incident: the accidental publication of a picture of a child who was not supposed to be photographed.

A couple of people made comments on the editorial along the lines that no one should be able to be photographed without permission, and that it’s the newspaper’s job to get such permission before shooting.

With all due respect, that’s not true.

First, if something happens in public – on the street, in a park, at a public event such as a football game or graduation ceremony – it is fair game. No photo restrictions apply to the newspaper, any more than they do to the dad standing in the end zone with his camera phone out.

If it happens at a school-only function, such as a classroom event, it is a little different, yes, but legally, parents must still opt out of the photo beforehand, not wait for the newspaper to call them to see whether they will opt in.

As I said in my comment on the editorial, this is possible because of school policies – allowed and defined under Oregon law – about “directory information.” If you’re looking for an example, Albany’s policy is here. You’ll find other districts’ policies – labeled “JOA” – are pretty much identical.

The OAR that governs the use of directory information is here: 581-021-0390.

Directory information includes: student names, photographs, date and place of birth, participation in sports and activities, weight and height of athletic team members, dates of attendance, honors and awards. Schools may legally disclose such information without prior permission of the parents, unless the parent has pre-signed a paper saying “No.”

This is what makes the possible the publication of honor rolls, team rosters, play programs, yearbooks, and, yes, newspaper pictures. This is also how military and college recruiters find your kid.

Opting out is the right of a parent, but unless it is done in advance, with the rest of the student’s registration paperwork, access is presumed. And most parents, we’ve found, decide they’d rather allow access than be left out of honor roll announcements, team photographs and the like.

Principals are the ones who make the decisions as to who is allowed access to students during the school day. If the principal allows the newspaper to come, the legal burden of proof as to whether a student’s photograph may not be published is on the school to provide, not the newspaper’s to search out.

We do our best to work with schools, but when we are invited to a particular activity – as we were, in the case my editor cited – we presume the arrangements have been made. We take dozens of photos at a time, and it’s a total pain for the poor secretaries to have to stop whatever else they’re doing (and it’s usually plenty) when we’re finished, to plow through huge student record books looking up 30-plus names just to see whether anyone isn’t supposed to be shot. That’s why we make visiting arrangements in advance, so this can be done whenever they might actually have time.

We have suggested, particularly to the school where there was a problem, that maybe the beginning of the school year would be a good time to develop lists, by classroom, of whose info is off limits. That would not only help the secretaries, but save us the trouble of realizing after the fact that our best photo can’t be used (which has happened multiple times). Knowing in advance, we just wouldn’t shoot certain kids at all.

I hope to be talking with superintendents, athletic directors and school registrars before the start of the next school year, to develop stronger partnerships and more complete understanding about directory information. In turn, I hope they’ll pass that info on to parents.

In the meantime, feel free to pass this post around.

Tweet This Post