Brandon Armstrong poses with his yearbook next to a fence at his school. Brandon's photo and quotes were cut out of his high school's yearbook in Courtenay BC.
When a Grade 10 student on Vancouver Island wrote an off-the-cuff reminiscence for his yearbook, he never anticipated that adults would label the remark "hurtful and untrue" and snip his photo and comments from 149 of 150 copies.
Only the student in question, Brandon Armstrong, received an uncensored copy of Lake Trail Middle School's 2009-10 yearbook.
"It's mind boggling," said Brandon, 15, who attends the 285-student school in Courtenay, B.C. "People should be able to state their opinions without having them cut out."
What led to the radical book surgery was Brandon's favourite Lake Trail memory: "When Ms. Carpenter spent all our money on a new fence instead of new textbooks."
Brandon's mother, Sherri Kennedy, can't fathom why her son's comment merited such a response, particularly since she said she's seen past yearbooks where much worse comments were not edited.
The "Ms. Carpenter" in question said Brandon's comment was removed because it was incorrect. "It was opinion versus fact," said Lori Carpenter, Lake Trail's principal.
A fence to keep students on school property was installed by the school district, and not at her request, she said, adding that the school doesn't lack textbooks.
An insert in the yearbook, explaining the excising, states that a student made a comment that was hurtful and "not based on truth" and that "I will not allow anything to be published that is hurtful and untrue."
Those words were written by Lake Trail teacher and yearbook adviser Ken Piercy, who spent one hour hand-cutting Brandon's profile out of 149 $25-apiece yearbooks after black marker didn't work, Ms. Carpenter said.
"The teacher took it upon himself to do this. He was really upset that he missed the comment," said Ms. Carpenter, who taught Brandon mathematics and will present him with a math award this year.
When she got wind that Mr. Piercy was cutting the yearbooks, she called him and told him to stop, but he didn't. "He should have listened," Ms. Carpenter said.
While he disobeyed his boss's order, Mr. Piercy won't be disciplined.
"He did what he did. Let's move on," said Ms. Carpenter, who has a PhD in educational leadership and curriculum development. "I'm in a position where I need to support staff."
While Mr. Piercy didn't tell Brandon who actually did the cutting, he did apologize. "He said he was sorry for my profile not being there. He was feeling remorse," Brandon said.
Mr. Piercy, who did not respond to an interview request, has spent several years managing the school's yearbooks, and, usually, comments containing profanity or other offensive content are removed prior to printing, Ms. Carpenter said. "This is his baby. I trust him implicitly."
But next year, before Lake Trail's yearbooks are printed, Ms. Carpenter said she will take the time to look over every student comment.
Brandon said his statement, made in January, indicated no ill will and was based on what he saw around him.
Next week, the school district will decide whether the yearbooks should be reprinted, said Ms. Carpenter, who, as the public face of the school, has been receiving many cutting messages over the affair. Some want her to resign, some want her "head on a slab" and one said she's unfit to be a human being.
"They're ugly. It's sick," said Ms. Carpenter, a principal for nearly a decade. "There's a lot of disturbed people out there."
Special to The Globe and Mail