Trump yearbook censorship: Wall teacher is a registered Democrat

Mike Davis | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Was this student's Trump T-shirt censored in the yearbook? Grant Berardo, a Wall High School junior, saw his image digitally altered with a plain black T-shirt in his yearbook.

WALL - The teacher at the center of a censorship scandal in the Wall High School yearbook is a registered Democrat, according to public records.

Susan Parsons, 62, was suspended from her position as a digital media teacher and yearbook adviser on Monday after two students reported their school pictures were altered in the yearbook to remove references to President Donald Trump.

According to the Monmouth County election board, Parsons is a registered Democrat. She voted in the November 2016 general election but public records do not indicate which candidate she voted for.

ICYMI: Wall High teacher suspended over alleged Trump yearbook censorship

MORE INFO: Wall teen's Trump shirt censored in yearbook

But the young Trump supporters believe they were slighted specifically.

Grant Berardo, a junior at the school, took his school pictures wearing a navy blue "Make America Great Again" shirt from the campaign. But in the yearbook, his photo had been digitally altered so it resembled a nondescript black T-shirt, which you can see in the video at the top of the story.

“It was Photoshopped," Grant said in an interview on Friday. "I sent it to my mom and dad, just like ‘You won’t believe this.’ I was just overall disappointed.

"I like Trump, but it’s history too. Wearing that shirt memorializes the time," he said.

According to CNN, Wyatt and Montana Dobrovich-Fago also alleged censorship. The Trump logo on Wyatt's sweater vest in his picture was seemingly cropped out. And a quote attributed to Trump was inexplicably left out of a section dedicated to Montana's role as freshman class president.

Traditionally, class presidents pick a quote to accompany their picture.

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"I like thinking big. If you are going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big," Trump's quote read.

Though none of the students were able to vote in last year's election, they certainly aren't alone in their support of Trump.

Wall is a strongly Republican town in a strongly Republican county. All five Township Committee members and Monmouth County freeholders are Republican, and the town is represented by Republicans in the state Senate, Assembly and House of Representatives.

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Last year, the number of Trump voters nearly doubled the 5,000 who voted for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. About 61 percent, just over 9,400 voters, in Wall supported Trump.

In Parsons' voting district, 434 people voted for Trump. Just 172 voted for Clinton.

According to her LinkedIn page, Parsons has worked in the district for 15 years.

On her yearbook class' website within the district homepage, Parsons includes "photo editing" as one of the "real world skills" that students learn during yearbook production.

An office manager at the Wall Township Education Association, the district's teacher union, said there was no one there who could comment. Union officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Parsons has not returned multiple calls to her home seeking comment. Nobody answered the door at her listed address in Wall.

In an interview with the New York Post, Parsons said “we have never made any action against any political party.

But when asked if she knew who altered the photos, Parsons simply said, “I’m going to hang up.”

Mike Davis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com