'Report card' in yearbook stirs Wayne High
School suspends distribution until it can cover the offending page. Now-retired adviser suspected of having a role.
By Valryn Warren
Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
HUBER HEIGHTS — Wayne High School students and staff members found a surprise report card in their yearbooks.
The next-to-last page of the 2005-06 yearbook has a half-page "report card" giving the administration an F, with the comment "Failure to support staff, inconsistant (sic) lack of preparation, make Wayne a place people want to escape rather then a place they feel respected and safe."
"Students in general" received a C and the remarks "improvement needed, lack of effort, do not pay attention, more study time needed."
Huber Heights Superintendent William Kirby said the district stopped distributing about half of the approximately 400 yearbooks late last week when the mock report card was discovered.
The district is trying to find out if the page can be covered. Tearing out the page presents a problem; the back is a memorial page for students Ian Bailey and Joey Bruce, who died in an auto crash last year.
"A yearbook is supposed to be a fond memory for students," Kirby said. "We have some students upset and some staff upset to think a fellow teacher would do this."
Kirby said it appears to be the work of yearbook adviser and 30-year English teacher Jeanne Sterling, who is pictured in the background of the pseudo-report card, which has her name on it. She retired at the end of last year.
Kirby said the district has called a lawyer, is checking with yearbook distributor Jostens to see who signed off on the yearbook.
Wayne principal John Allen, who is out of town, will be calling Sterling to verify that she wrote and submitted the piece.
Sterling, contacted at her home in Brookville, said, "I have no comment" and ended the call.
"It's just unfortunate that an adviser and teacher would take advantage of her position with the yearbook and use a student publication to voice her dissatisfaction," Kirby said. "This is supposed to be a fond memory for students."
