The yearbook staff has announced it will not publish senior quotes in the 2023 “Arcadia” yearbook due to several yearbooks having been recalled across the nation every year. Yearbook adviser Jodie Capron said she believes having senior quotes is too much of a risk that she is not willing to take. 

“Senior quotes are a liability,” Capron said. “Because let’s face it, the whole thing is a challenge to see what you can get past everybody.”

Yearbook staff member Junior Alexis Clark said people are misappropriating quotes from infamous people, most notably Nazi dictator Adolf Hilter, as a joke, but incorrectly attributing it to other well-known people. The repercussions of these types of incidents can cause yearbooks to recall thousands of dollars of books, she said.

“It would be too much to ask the staff to spend hours researching and checking every senior’s quote,” Clark said. “Especially if people will be trying to get away with things that will make the school look bad or even get sued for libel.”

Capron said her goal is to protect her staff’s work.

“I’m not going to have [the staff’s] hard work called into question, censored, or called back,” Capron said. “I strongly feel that it is the best thing we can do to protect this gift that we give the school every year from something like that.”

Senior Zac Zammas called the decision to end quotes is upsetting.

“There is a difference between filtering what we say and not even giving us the opportunity to have quotes that every single class before us has had,” he said. “It is unreasonable to say the least.”

Zammas said punishing seniors for something out of their control is inequitable and roots in a lack of trust in the students.

“It was due to another high-school’s inability to filter foolishness,” he said. “However, for a school that prides itself on having such intelligent students, it seems to not even trust its own students.”

Zammas said he believes senior quotes are a pivotal part of being a senior and hates to see them go.

“You’re leaving your mark on the school you just finished,” he said. “So it feels as if a big chunk of my high-school experience was taken from me and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

By Jolie Russo