Shaker Heights HS yearbook cover contains hidden F-word

Shaker Heights High School yearbook cover this year is drawn by an artistically gifted student with a creative interpretation of a crowd of "Red Raider" mascots. But to the surprise of the administrators, they discovered a hidden farewell message containing the F-word in the artwork sprawled across yearbook’s front cover.

A letter was written last week by Principal Michael Griffith to students and their families explaining that distribution of the yearbook had been suspended because "an obscenity was cleverly concealed in the cover artwork." The school needed first to fix the yet-to-be-distributed yearbooks and also offered to fix any books that had already been distributed, though it's hard to imagine anyone would have noticed the offending word without someone pointing it out.

The note also contained an apology from the student artist who said, "I cannot begin to explain the miserable feeling I brought upon myself, when I betrayed the trust of all of you, I apologize for offending anyone and everyone. It is unfortunate that I did not recognize the big responsibility and honor given to me when asked to design the cover of the Shaker Heights yearbook. I offer my sincere apologies.”

The sincere apology worked. At the Shaker graduation ceremony Thursday, the student artist received the loudest, most sustained applause of any fellow student as he accepted his diploma. It seems that yearbooks won’t hear the end of hidden obscenities, sexually-themed shocking pranks this year.

Resource