SUMMIT — Before attending the rehearsal at which caps and gowns were distributed, Summit High School seniors were told to turn in their yearbooks so that the front view of one boy in the class photo could be altered.

One senior said the boy's "assets" in the large group photo, taken in the spring on the football field, didn't just escape the notice of multiple people charged with approving the book before it went to print and was then distributed to seniors who paid $100 for the memory books.

"It would have been OK, the 'problem area' is so small that no one even noticed" when the books were distributed last week to seniors, the student said.

"Until, of course, the boy bragged about his 'great and wonderful' prank."

Even then, the senior said, "people thought it was funny, then they thought it was stupid. No one posted pictures on Instagram, there was nothing on Twitter or Facebook. Everyone stopped talking about it."

That changed, the student said, when the school "started confiscating yearbooks. Now it's become Yearbookgate ... the Salem yearbook hunt." The situation was discovered before the books were handed out to underclassmen who bought them.

The prank took place during the traditional class group shot, taken on the school football field. Seniors assembled to create the number 14.

Summit Superintendent Dr. Nathan Parker on June 19 said, "This was a foolish and inappropriate prank that does not represent the Summit High School students as a whole."

He said the "students involved are being disciplined appropriately" and "are particularly remorseful."

The student said the school's handling of the situation has made students "uncomfortable."

Parker said that students were "asked to turn in their yearbooks before rehearsal began," and said "98 percent" complied. Some families are already traveling out of the area, he added.

The senior said teachers this week were taking yearbooks "off your desk" and the "heads of certain clubs" and some honor students were summoned to the principal's office and "threatened" if yearbooks weren't turned in so that the photo could be touched up.

The senior doesn't object with the school's decision to "recall" the yearbooks and is "not angry that they want to cover up" the photo.

The senior does think the school's handling of the situation was "scary" and a "weird witch hunt. They're doing this on the DL without outright saying what the problem is.

"Threatening kids," who were not associated with the prank "with not walking" at the June 25 graduation ceremony and "after all their work, vastly invalidates" that effort.

Parker said rumors about banning students from graduation were false.

The student said some students — often with the support of parents — wouldn't bring their yearbooks to school to get them signed by classmates and staff members.

Staff members "take them" or direct seniors to deliver them to the office and "say you can have it back at the end of the day. There's a huge pile of yearbooks in the vice principal's office. Now it's all anyone is talking about."

Parker said that all graduates are allowed to attend the ceremony on June 25. He said the yearbook photo was altered by erasing what was still fresh ink on the yearbook page.

The senior described the classmate at the center of the prank as a "well liked" athlete.

The senior who spoke out wishes that Summit High administrators had instead "worked with the kids to find a solution. Not scare them into submission."

The student opined that instead they took "away rights, supposedly for peace and order" and caused "chaos."

"I wouldn't have even known there was something wrong in the yearbook, but now I'll never forget."

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