Elementary class photo deemed 'racist' and 'offensive'

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David Claussen was asked to edit the picture of a second grade class that he took at Sawgrass Elementary School. A student was missing a permission slip and needed to be removed. Because he could not properly fix the image with Photoshop, the P.T.A. asked that an image be placed over the child’s face. Claussen proceeded to draw a smiley face and color it brown to represent an African-American boy. Many have deemed the correction offensive while others see it as a solution to a simple problem. The child has since then been removed from the school by his parents. Yahoo reports:

An elementary school class picture is causing quite a stir after the photographer Photoshopped a cartoon smiley face over a boy’s head.

David Claussen, owner of Broward County Pictures, took the photo of the second grade class at Sawgrass Elementary school, but was notified afterward that two of the students hadn’t signed consent forms and needed to be removed.

The local news reports:

“Claussen said he was able to use the photo editing software Adobe Photoshop to lift one of the kids out, but had explained to them that there was a problem with the second student. He was sitting in the front row, right in the middle … He said he would have gladly come out there to reshoot the image. Instead there was talk about putting a star over his face and then, he said, the P.T.A. asked him to place a smiley face.”

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