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FOX 5 COVERAGE: POST SECRET
The website that inspired the idea for the
Massaponox High School Yearbook.

Response to High School Yearbook Confessions

Yearbook Copy Editor defends "Truth Be Told"

Published : Thursday, 20 May 2010, 3:55 PM EDT

By BOB BARNARD/myfoxdc

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - Taking deep, dark secrets of teenagers and publishing them in a high school yearbook has won national awards for students in other parts of this country. But that most unusual way of sharing the hidden truths of adolescence has backfired in Spotsylvania County.

17-year-old Massaponax High School senior Kate Cummins was a copy editor on the yearbook staff that decided to solicit and print the anonymous secrets of her classmates in the Massaponax school yearbook titled: Truth Be Told.

"We didn't want to hurt anyone," Cummins told FOX 5. "We didn't want to offend anyone. We wanted to make sure everyone was included."

By everyone, Cummins means teenagers on the fringe of society.

"We didn't want to ignore the darker side of high school," said Cummins. "We wanted it to be the truth, the real life of what goes on. What happens."

Here are some of the secrets published:

"I say mean things to people because like to see their reaction."

"I get so lonely that I set my phone alarm to go off in intervals and pretend people are texting me."

"The bullying I went through in elementary school still ruins my life everyday."

"I used to be afraid of dying. Now I would do anything to see my brother again."

"The image of my dad putting a gun to his head right in front of me has scarred me for the rest of my life."

They are the anonymous confessions of Fredericksburg teenagers. Kate Cummin's classmates.

"People aren't stupid," said Cummins. "They know what goes on in high school. But to have it printed and have it out there - that's a very, very, very large step."

And now Massaponax High School principal Joe Rodkey has reportedly ordered all copies of the yearbook already handed out be turned in. A new version of "Truth Be Told" will be printed without the student confessions. Kate Cummins called that disappointing, but understandable considering the firestorm that has erupted.

 

 

  • Yearbook Copy Editor Responds

Massaponax H.S. Yearbook Copy Editor Kate Cummings' Insight into the decision making behind "Confessions."

via Facebook conversations with myfoxdc

Kate Cummins
May 20 at 12:15pm

The point of our yearbook this year was to get out the entire truth, the entire part of the year- not just the sunshine and daisy portion. Instead of having the popular kids and jocks dominate the entire thing, we decided to follow post secret and get everyone to participate by sending in their secret. Our intentions weren't to hurt anyone or to cause offense; we just didn't want to ignore the "darker side" of high school.
We represented everyone: the druggies, cutters, gays, lesbians- anyone who had a story to tell. We turned down no one. Our yearbook, for once, was the complete truth of Massaponax. Our hearts were in the right place, we were just so caught up in telling the truth and making sure that no voice was shut out that we forgot that something like this hasn't been done before on such an aggressive level in our community.
We shoved the truth into everyone's face, instead of easing into it as we should have. Everyone keeps asking 'how did these comments get in', the answer is simple. We asked the student body to tell us their secrets. To confess to us and tell their story. What is seen in our book is what they told.


And, honoring our promise, we posted it. Talking to some students they have said that posting their secret was a type of therapy, and reading the dark secrets of others made them feel not so alone. We admit that our approach was not the wisest, we see that now, but our hearts were in the right place. We wanted to do the right thing and represent our year the way it truly happened. We wanted to show all the faces of our school, not just the ones society was used to seeing. We wanted to, as our title states, let the Truth be Told. 

 

Kate Cummins
May 20 at 1:55pm

Let me just make this clear, without our adviser our yearbook this year would not have been half as amazing as it was. And I don't mean the secrets- I mean the skills she taught us in order to enable us to be able to make such an accomplishment. I have the highest respect for her and do not want her to take ANY fallout for the outcome of our yearbook. Yes, the staff was in agreement towards our theme and how we chose to do it- we actually found the idea in two other National Award Winning yearbooks from around the country.

Now, because we saw other schools doing the same things, that refers both to the secrets AND the Quotable Quotes, you might be able to see how both the staff and adviser might think that what we were doing would be perfectly okay. Our adviser edited quite a bit of the book- I cannot tell you the amount of secrets that were thrown out or unused because she felt the content was too offensive.

However, I am asking everyone to understand that she is only human. We all are. We compared our own secrets with those of the other books and if they had something similar then we decided that it should be alright. It isn't exactly like we had something specific to model it after- nothing like this has been done in our area before so we couldn't be sure how anyone would react. Looking back on everything- we see where we went wrong, and we apologize deeply to our community. We were too aggressive and too lenient with the secrets. It is like I said before, we were so focused on making sure we upheld our promise and making sure each voice we heard that our judgment was severely clouded. 

The blame for this mistake is placed on no one- not our staff, the editors, our adviser or even the principal of our school. It was an honest and genuine mistake, one that we wish did not happen. We are fixing our mistake now and hope that we will be forgiven for how things turned out. We never meant for any of this to happen, and a lot of our student body is now seeing that and stand behind us.

Please, allow me to repeat, our adviser is NOT to blame for anything. She is the best thing that has happened to the journalistic program at our school- as is shown by the progress, accomplishments and awards we have won since her arrival. We all hold her in high respect and sincerely hope that the press will stop making the attempt to blame it on her.
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