School District Issues Apology For Photoshopping Black Homecoming Queen's Hair To Look Brown Instead Of Purple
A school district in the Houston area recently issued an apology after an altered photo of a high school homecoming queen published to the website received much backlash.
Ebony Smith of North Shore Senior High School was crowned homecoming queen last month. However, her photo was only placed on the Galena Park ISD website last week. When Ebony saw the photo of herself, homecoming king Kasson Abdullah and Principal Joe Coleman, she noticed her hair color had been Photoshopped, reported KHOU-TV.
Ebony had purple hair for the photograph. In the image posted to the site, the teen appeared with brown hair.
"It's embarrassing," Ebony told KHOU-TV. "It wasn't even Photoshopped correctly. You can still see purple outlining. It's just very embarrassing."
According to the district’s handbook, the purple hair is unacceptable for the classroom. However, Ebony planned to dye her hair brown immediately after homecoming.
When the school district was made aware of Ebony’s disappointment, they issued the following statement to KHOU with an apology on Tuesday:
“Galena Park ISD was contacted earlier today regarding a photo displayed on the webpage with one of our press releases. After looking into this parent’s concern, we did discover the incorrect photo was posted with the story highlighting her child. The error was immediately corrected, and our district sincerely apologizes to the student affected and her parents. Our intent has been, and will continue to be, to acknowledge and spotlight the accomplishments of our students, and we do regret this mistake.”
Ebony’s mother, Tameasha Watkins, was very upset about the entire ordeal.
"You changed her to make her look like someone else," she told KHOU. "Keep her as who she is. That's who the students voted in."
The school district has since posted a photo of Ebony with her original hair color on to its Facebook page.