Ah, the high school yearbook photo. Teenage girls spend hours upon hours primping and prepping before stepping in front of the camera for the picture that will forever be remembered as their high school legacy.
And while most high school girls are worried about hiding their acne, or getting their braces removed in time for the big day, one girl in Colorado is busy worrying about whether her school will even allow her photo to be published in the 2012 yearbook.
School administrators say that her attire in her photo of choice violates the school’s dress code, but why? Probably because the photo in question features the teenager posing a bit too provocatively for a girl who just turned 18. She’s considering taking legal action against the school for trampling on her right to free expression.

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So who is this mystery girl? What does her scandalous yearbook photo look like? Keep reading for pictures and video of this too-sexy-for-high-school, First Amendment freedom fighter….
This teenage dream’s name is Sidney Spies, and when she grows up she wants to be a model. A model? With a name like that, she might want to reconsider her career choice.

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After refusing Spies’s first picture, the school gave her the opportunity to submit a second one, preferably of the less racy variety. Here’s what Spies offered up:
Take a wild guess as to what the school’s response was. But why is the administration raining on Spies’s slutty pictorial parade? After all, these are the photos that “best represent her personality.” Cue mothers shaking their heads and hiding their sons before they can be deflowered.
But shouldn’t Spies have the right to express herself in any way that she deems fit? The Durango Herald has more on Spies’s legal claims:
Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center, said Spies’ allegations against the school’s administration may be valid.
According to Colorado Revised Statutes Section 22-1-120, “students of the public schools shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press” and that “no expression contained in a student publication, whether or not such publication is school-sponsored, shall be subject to prior restraint.”
Goldstein said, “Hopefully, it would come as no surprise that dress codes don’t trump state law.”
According to the Denver Westword, Spies is planning to meet with an attorney if the school doesn’t allow her to picture to go to press. But it’s not just the administration that doesn’t want Spies’s photo to be seen.
One member of the yearbook staff noted, “We don’t want this picture to make our publication seem unprofessional and inappropriate.” They’re allowing Spies to fork over $300 for the privilege of publishing her picture of choice in the paid ad section in the back of the book — so it can be etched in the spank banks of teens for years and years to come.
Spies was interviewed by Matt Lauer this morning on the TODAY show. What did she have to say?
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Although we’ll have to wait and see if Spies will follow through with a lawsuit against her high school, we’re going to turn this question over to our readers. We’d like to know what you think about Sidney Spies and her fight for freedom of expression.
Please vote in our poll, and feel free to debate the case in the comments.
[poll id=”159″]
DHS administrators say senior’s yearbook photo violates dress code [Durango Herald]
Sydney Spies’s yearbook photo too sexy for Durango High School? [Denver Westword]
Too sexy for her yearbook: High school bans teen’s photo for ‘violating dresscode’ [Daily Mail]
Teen in revealing yearbook photo flap: ‘It’s artistic’ [TODAY]