Santa Rosa High is taking away the Senior Portraits Yearbook experience and replacing it with unwanted Lifetouch portraits. This is unacceptable. 

Excerpt from Yearbook Ad: 

“This year, senior portraits will be taken on two separate days. The portraits taken at orientation and on make-up day will be used to create the student ID cards. We will be scheduling a separate date with Life Touch to take special senior portraits at SRHS. These portraits will be the official portraits for the students in the yearbook. If your senior does not take their senior portraits, then we will use the ID photo. If you decide to hire a photographer on your own to take photos of your senior, those pictures may be used to create your senior dedication ad (see above). Only pictures taken by Life Touch will be used in the portrait section of the yearbook this vear. No props or animals will be allowed in the official portrait.”

For years, Santa Rosa High School seniors have had the opportunity to submit their own senior portraits to the yearbook. However, the 2022-23 yearbook advisor and editors have ELIMINATED this experience and privilege for our Graduating Class of 2023. If Yearbook removes the opportunity to submit our senior portraits, we will be forced to have unwanted Lifetouch photos in our final yearbook. In our last year of high school, we truly value having the chance to share a portrait of ourselves which we love and feel confident about. By removing this opportunity, students who already bought senior photos will be at a disadvantage. By removing this opportunity, seniors will lose confidence in their LAST yearbook portrait. By removing this opportunity, we will lose more sense of community than we already have. Because we have waited three years for this meaningful opportunity, we will not allow this removal to go through. 

We recognize that there are difficult challenges being placed on Yearbook; there’s a lack of staffing and support. However, our entire school has made lasting efforts to rebuild the damage COVID-19 has done to our student community. As a class who has lost 2 normal years of high school, COVID-19 has taken away too many experiences from us. We value this meaningful senior experience, and it should not be taken away from us. We encourage Yearbook to maintain the motivation to make meaningful efforts towards preserving the spirit, tradition, and experiences in our Panther community.  

As we continue to battle challenges of the pandemic, a lack of student community, lost experiences, the Class of 2023 will ensure that we preserve and build new traditions at Santa Rosa High School. Removing the senior photos we appreciate–will disrupt Santa Rosa High School tradition. We will continue advocating for the continuance of having the opportunity to submit our own senior portraits. 

We ask Yearbook to recognize our disappointment, and we want you to reconsider your decision. We understand your challenges, but we ask you to pull through. Removing senior photos will be detrimental to our last year of high school and we would like to initiate dialogue between the Class of 2023 and the Yearbook leaders. 

Please reach out to the Yearbook Advisor to discourage the intended removal of Senior Photos: celsa@srcs.k12.ca.us