Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Playoff awe


Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Remington Boykin, 8, of Lumberton gapes at activities before the Class 4A Division II playoff football game between Lumberton and Houston Smiley high schools in Mont Belvieu on Friday, Nov. 16, 2007.

2 comments:

Marie said...

N. C. schools no longer allow any body painting---all because of the lack of gang problems we have...I miss cute kids like this. I am barely allowed to take photos in public schools anymore because of the number of parents who sign forms not allowing their children to be photographed. How often do you run into ridiculous rules and how do you overcome them? Just wondering...
and, I'm thankful for your bloggy friendship. Have a good one.

Mark M. Hancock said...

I've been meaning to do a post on this...
Most Texas schools have a check box on the enrollment form for parents who don't want their kids' to appear in media. If it isn't checked, it's OK to shoot the kiddos.
When I shoot in schools, I ask the teacher which kids aren't allowed. We separate them from the rest, and I don't shoot them.
I always feel bad for these kids. They want to be in the paper, but they can't because they often have misinformed parents.
The first time these rules appeared (many years ago), the school district went overboard.
So, we called the coaches at the four high schools we covered, and (truthfully) told them we weren't going to cover any high school sports because of the district's new rules.
All was resolved within 24 hours.

Each school district has its own rules. It's counterproductive for some districts because we only cover their "bad news." If they would let us see their good programs it would balance better. But, their policy leads to mostly images shot from the public street through a rusty fence after a gang fight or whatever.
If that's what they want other readers to see, I guess it's their option.
The smarter districts invite us to their balloon releases, reading programs and mentor programs.