"ugly people" photos go untaken

I came across a story on the Time NewsFeed this morning. It hit home for me because the story highlights a small business owner from my home town of Pittsburgh, PA. Jennifer McKendrick is a photographer that makes the bulk of her paycheck this time of year from shooting senior photos for the surrounding high school students. Jennifer has refused to take pictures of teenagers who had posted "ugly" comments on facebook about other students. She says that these comments went past typical teenage picking and went on to say the comments were of a sexual nature. While I was unable to find these comments on the alleged "ugly messengers," I wholeheartedly agree with this small business owner. I give her a lot of credit for standing on principle; letting her paycheck diminish while increasing her moral leadership in her community. The parents of the students say that they had no idea that their kids were writing unsightly posts about others. This brings me to a few points:

1. This is exactly how business owner should operate. how wonderful would it be if the leaders of the large corporations behaved like this? We all know that's not how a corporate company works. All corporations are based on monetary growth. That's the way it works. They make a lot of money and to hell with everything else. Not Jennifer McKendrick. She stands on her own principles. And due to her conviction, her business has taken a short term hit, but has received national recognition which I'm sure will boost her future sales. And all she did was the right thing.

2. Where were the parents? They disappeared like Moammar Gadhafi from the rebels. Facebook is a cool addition to our communities. It allows us to connect with each other, reach people who have similar hobbies and experiences (regardless of geographic location); however, it also affords an opportunity for persons with less than productive intentions to conglomerate and multiply a more negative message. So how old were these facebookers? Well they are in high school, so I'm betting they live at home and were still under the legal supervision of their parents. Should the parents have been monitoring their facebook posts? Probably. Should they have been censoring them? Probably. We've all done stupid things as kids, but the current generation has had access to leave a permanent hand print in cyberspace. It's tough for a 17 year old to grasp the concept that something like this will really hurt someone's feelings on a long timeline. But the parents should know better. I guess it's easy enough for the "ugly messengers" to delete the negative posts and move on. It won't hurt them in the long run. They won't be hindered by this; their job prospects won't be hurt, their credit, college applications, public office ambitions. But what happens to the ridiculed students? The brain pain lasts forever. And posting on the internet takes an inside joke like, "Mason wears women's underwear...hahahaha." to a grand scale where now everyone with a computer joins in. what was a joke between 5 people becomes the curiosity of 500 people. Now everyone wants to know about Mason's bedside manor. It's a powerful tool but with great power comes great responsibility. Who is responsible? the kids, the parents, the school, Lindsay Lohan, Lil Wayne? When I was a kid I was on both ends of this spectrum at one time or another. As an adult, I've felt bad about being a jerk in the past and often wonder if my meanness has made any impact on the ambitions of the attacked. I also still carry a sense of aggression towards those who trespassed against me. I have to say that I have not forgiven and probably never will. But there's a point when you say, "who really cares? it was high school. I'm all grown up and have a family of my own now. piss on my aggressors of the past." but if someone picks on my kids, will my aggression towards the guy who gave me a wedggy in 9th grade come out? only time will tell. Will the kids who were picked on generate anger and aggression not just towards the trespassers, but towards the masses? It's spooky to think about the potential impact of this situation. Where do the dominoes stop?

3. Should the school intervene? That's a fair question I think. It's not exactly a problem for the school, but for the community. But isn't the school the center point of the community? I don't know how I would react if I were the superintendent. I guess I would attempt to create a town-hall like setting and bring leaders of the community (teachers, coaches, press, local politicians, police department) and anyone else that wanted to come into a room and discuss how to handle situations like this in the future...because i'm sure this won't be the last time this happens.

Just think about the impact that Jennifer McKendrick is having on her community now. All she did was the right thing. What will happen the next time you do the right thing? Who will it impact? How will it make things better.

Hats off to you Jennifer. Keep up the good work.

(www.jenmckenphoto.com)