Yearbook Profile of Teen Mom Banned


DALLAS -- A Texas high school has shot down a profile of a teenage mother in this year's upcoming yearbook.

Students working on Burleson High School yearbook had planned to include a story about senior Brittani Shipman and her daughter, 17-month-old Kayli Rae.

"As soon as I got pregnant, everybody was like, 'Whoa!'" Shipman said.

The 17-year-old said she stayed in school, got good grades and planned to go to college.

Her classmates decided to write about Shipman's story of choices and challenges in the yearbook.

But school administrators said the article would glamorize pre-martial sex and send the wrong message.

"We have an abstinence-based program," said Burleson School District spokesman Richard Crummel.

"And the principal gets to make the decisions about what will be appropriate material for the yearbook. And in this case, he said that's not the venue."

Yearbook editor Megan Estes said the principal has it all wrong.

"The whole spread is about how hard it is for them," she said. "In reading this spread, you're not going to get, 'Oh I want to go out and have a kid because this is so awesome.'"

Estes and Shipman asked the Burleson School Board to allow the article to be published.

"All I'm asking is, you allow my story to be told," Shipman told board members.

Estes called the move censorship.

"It's supposed to be a yearbook for everybody," she said at the board meeting.

So far, Burleson administrators have showed little signs of changing their minds.

"They want us to address realistic issues, and they want to prepare us for college and the life outside of high school," Shipman said. "But if you can't address this kind of issue? You're not preparing us for diddley-squat."

The yearbook editors said, with their deadlines approaching quickly, they have little time to debate the matter.


Wow so this is probably one the most ridiculous things I've heard in awhile.

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Wow, that's messed up. Just goes to show the geographical differences in America. When I graduated there were about three girls who carried thier babies across the stage with them, in miniature cap and gown. We had an on-campus day-care and an on-campus clinic that gave free BCP, condoms and STD testing. I agree, that girl should be allowed to tell her story.

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At my school we had ZERO education and having a baby was more common than graduating.

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I dunno...I don't know that she should be singled out in the YEARBOOK though, you know? I mean, people had lots of stories, just because hers showed, she's going to have a layout in the yearbook? Maybe a specialized article in the school paper based on staying in school no matter what, but I think I agree with the principal, it seems inappropriate to 'honor' the choice one way or another to get pg in high school. It happened in mine too, but it didn't make these girls any type of 'celebrities'. I don't know about the preaching abstinance part though...that seems like an odd reasoning behind the decision.

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Steph - I agree. I think the school newspaper is a better idea for that story. I guess if it was a teen moms group at the school then maybe it could be in the yearbook but it doesn't sound like the school would sponsor such a group.

We had one teen mom at our school and she gave the baby up for adoption, it was an open adoption and she carried current pictures of the baby.

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It does seem more like a newspaper story--at least the way the students are portraying it in the article, more like trying to educate other kids rather than have a rememberance. On the other hand-it is the kids' yearbook, if they want it in there why should they be stopped?
If I were the principal I wouldn't be opposed to including some pictures of the mom/baby in the candid photos section or something as a compromise.

Could I be any more on the fence?

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That is crazy!!

There were Sooooooo many girls at my highschool who were pg or already had kids that they built a daycare right outfront on the property. Things happen and they should help these teens stay in school even if it means building a daycare for them to bring their kids. I just think that story is nuts, JMO! I agree also, that girl should be allowed to tell her story.

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I have to say that I agree with the principal on that choice. My Dh teaches middle school and those kids read things and interpret things entirely differant than adults do, so even if we think the yearbook spread may not seem like it makes being a teen mom look glamourous, some of the kids (especially those looking for SOMEONE to love them) may see that one girl was able to do it, so they might be able to also.

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I hadn't even heard this story and I live about 30 mins from Burleson! It is VERY conservative here in Texas (especially when you come from So. Cal!), and Burleson is more rural so I am not surprised they banned it. I too am on the fence, but agree that any story-even one showing how difficult it is-could possibly "glamorize" teen PG.

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I guess it hadn't dawned on me that the principal saw this as a "glamourizing" of teen PG. The impression I got from the article was that the teens were attempting to portray the hell that girl had to go through in order to graduate. I just think that in a school that teaches "abstinence" banning her story from the yearbook falls in perfectly with thier methods: let's close our eyes and pretend it doesn't exist.

I'm sorry, but abstinence teaching is just rediculous IMO. I quite possibly would have been a teen mother if I hadn't had access to BCP and knowlege at my high school (course, who knows, as hard as it is for me TTC-maybe not!) But I think teens deserve more than wandering around in the dark. It's like anything else, they're gonna do it anyway, at least arm them.

And yes, Texas is much more conservative than here where I live, so things are different.

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Claire-I definitely agree that teens should be taught more than just abstinence, since we know they will do what they are going to do. I see that as a separate issue than the yearbook thing though. Personally, I think more parents should be talking to their kids about sex and BC etc, but we all know how that goes.

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OMG, I just had a ‘90210’ moment…Claire, what you said gave me a SERIOUS flashback…anyone remember the episode where Donna caught her mother having the affair, they’d gone to the Color Me Badd concert…LMAO! Anyway, having condoms in school was the hot topic of the show earlier and Donna’s mother was campaigning against it. At the end of the episode, Donna gives mom a speech in front of everyone about having a swimming pool in the backyard, and you can tell them not to go in it, you can even build a fence around it, but if you know they’re going to find a way into that water, ‘don’t you think you’d better teach those kids how to swim?’

Awww, shucks, who reads the yearbook later except the class that got it anyway?

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Steph-I know this is scary, but I know EXACTLY the episode of 90210 you are talking about, LOL!

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LMAO, and she was wearing the black and red checkered hotpants? Oh! I'm dying! LOL!

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that episode was just on Soap Net not long ago--(I'm not a 90210 junky I was stuck in bed!)

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LOL! I can't say the same. I haven't seen an episode of 90210 in years; I have, what I started referring to years ago, as a "phonographic memory", where if I hear something, I can recall it basically verbatim, down to wording, tone, etc. I can 're-hear' it in my head. I'm hell to argue with...Ha!

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