'F word' yearbook joke backfires at FWB High

When many seniors opened their Fort Walton Beach High School yearbooks this week, they flipped right past page 60 without a second glance.

But the obscene word hidden at the bottom of the page didn't go unnoticed for long.

"I missed it the first time, too," said Principal Charlene Couvillon.

As soon as the unseemly term was discovered, yearbook distribution halted.

An editor on the yearbook staff had hidden the "F word" in captions at the bottom of the page. Each of the first letters of the captions was placed in bold red and spelled the word out over four photos.

"If I had to write out a list of kids who might do this, I would have never included her name," Couvillon said of the student.

In a mutual decision by the student's parents and the school, a sticker was printed to change the caption and then affixed to the page on which the obscenity appeared. The student's parents paid for the correction that is hard to pick out at first look.

"They thought it was the least they could do," Couvillon said.

Although Couvillon said there have "absolutely been consequences for her actions," she will be allowed to walk at her high school graduation. However, the student's reputation has been severely tarnished, she said.

"This is a real betrayal," Couvillon said.

Students and parents paid up to $95 for the student-written and designed book.

"A lot of the parents and students that have seen it have been offended by it," said Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts.

Tibbetts said the student did not include the page the "F word" appeared on in the pages to be approved by the yearbook advisor.

"That in itself is a deception," Tibbetts said.

School officials said although they won't reveal her exact punishment, there have been disciplinary actions taken.

Couvillon said she also finds the situation disturbing because some students would like to make the person who placed the word on the page a hero.

"It is nothing to be looked up to or rewarded," she said.

Yearbook advisor Susan Teare said she hopes the prank one student pulled doesn't outshine the hard work 26 other students put into the 2009 yearbook.

"They put their heart and their life into this book," Teare said. "This should be a happy time for the yearbook."