Yearbook using stock photos

Breaking news: it has just been uncovered that the Samo yearbook class has been going against their class syllabus and using Google stock photos in the yearbook, rather than taking the pictures themselves.Samo has many electives that use the skill of students to produce films, a newspaper and of course a yearbook. Specifically for some of these classes that rely on the dedication and creativity of the Samo students in the class who work together to produce a product that the whole school will see and sometimes take home, there is a certain professional, yet the authentic, quality that the consumers always expect. However, after some detective investigation, it is evident that the student body is informed of a scandal that has arisen. There is no solid proof that the students involved in making the yearbook for Samo have been using Google stock photos all along.Dating back through the years, students have always conspired about their fellow classmates, and apparently this has been a rumor for a long time at the Samo campus, but nothing has ever come from the assumption, at least nothing until today. Tracking down a former yearbook photographer was hard considering they have all been sworn to secrecy, however, Mike Hollister (’02) has agreed to break the vow of silence he took so many years ago.“I had no idea what I was getting myself into, not until I walked into class on the first day of school. It was my freshman year, 1998, the room was dark. First I was sworn to secrecy, then I was shown the fake cameras. We were forced to wear the fake cameras, but through all four of my years in the class, as the designated photographer, I never took a single photo,” Hollister said.Although Hollister’s statement sealed the deal and confirmed this age-old theory, still there are other measures of precaution that were taken in order to uncover this mystery.If any Samo student were to go to the library and find the secret stock of old Samo yearbooks, that student would understand how this rumor is  a reality. But for those who are unable to see for themselves, the following is an explanation of what was found.All of the pictures of “Samo students” that are placed throughout the yearbook to fill space repeat throughout the books. Every five years, the same photos are used in the same order, and everyone just assumes that they don’t know the people in the photos because they don’t! Even some of the pictures of the music groups and sports teams are recycled from past years or are another school entirely. Page 56, photo two, pictures Jasmine Davis (’01). Davis is not a Samo grad, however, she has appeared in the Samo yearbook for years on end. But, some simple Google searching uncovered her photo on the first page of stock photos for the search “highschool girl.”In this investigation, nothing was expected to be found, however, a Samo conspiracy that dates back decades was uncovered. If nothing else comes of this investigation, hopefully, the yearbook photographers will at least learn how to edit the watermarks off of the photos they have chosen, although if they have never taken a single photo, I seriously doubt they would partake in any editing.