Yearbook is a student led, planned, run, and produced book. There are legal and ethical requirements mandated by the Minnesota Education system because the book is a product of a class. The class is considered .5 of an English elective course and .5 of a photography course. As such, there are education requirements that the Voyageur yearbook practices.
The yearbook staff and the Voyageur yearbook are protected by the First Amendment and other protections and limitation as afforded by the Constitution and the various court
decisions implementing those principles. By not interfering with the publication content, school officials are therefore not responsible for the content.
The yearbook is considered journalistic writing. As such, its task is to inform its readers in an accurate and fair manner. This includes the areas of academics, student groups, athletics, and the school community. The target audience for the book is the student body of 3,400+ students.
The same ethical principles apply to yearbook journalism as to any other kind of media:
● Reporters should cover all sides of a story fairly and fully
● Reporters should identify themselves as representing the yearbook
● Reporters should verify source information with someone else or some other resource
● Reporters should avoid lurking on social media sites and should never use information gained from social media as their only resource. No information should be taken from a social media site without notification to the author of the site.
(from the Journalism Education Association’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
As a staff, yearbook encourages written constructive criticism, delivered directly to the adviser. Personally-directed harassment toward any staff member will not be tolerated, any will be reported immediately.
The content coverage period lasts from the summer before the current school year starts to March when the book is complete. Because of the time it takes to print the book and
prepare it for distribution, it is not possible to include events occurring past this date.
Additionally, the book is published throughout the school year. There are five deadlines throughout the year. When possible, the class will include a spring supplement, highlighting some of the spring sports and activities.
Group photos for clubs and organizations are taken by school-officiated photographers.
All faculty and staff are notified prior to the date of group photo day. Staff and students will be provided with the schedule of the group photo day prior to the event . Any groups not photographed after that day are not the responsibility of the yearbook staff.
Team photos for athletics are the responsibility of each individual team. The yearbook staff will reach out to individual teams for their current team photo, and scoring record of the year. If we do not receive this before the deadline, we will be unable to publish it in the book.
Because yearbook is a student publication, our goal is always to have all photos in the yearbook taken by current, yearbook staff members. However, we welcome student and
parent submissions. Please email high resolution photos to minnetonkayearbook@gmail.com . Include contact information and a description of the photo (who, what, where, when, and why). We cannot guarantee that the photos will be used in the book.
Because the yearbook is a student publication, complete satisfaction is not guaranteed to the purchaser. Refunds will not be given for minor errors such as poor portrait quality, misspelled names, etc..
