Hancock County School District responds to complaints about Hancock Middle School’s yearbook content

Published 2:55 pm Monday, May 24, 2021

By Sea Coast Echo staff

Parents of students at Hancock Middle School on Monday expressed their outrage on Facebook over this year’s yearbook, which included prompts such as “Which friend would you not invite on Spring Break?”

The students’ responses to the questions such as the one above were published in this year’s yearbook. Pictures of the yearbook were shared via Facebook on Monday morning.

Responses included: “My friend __ since he doesn’t like things that I like;” “I would not bring my friend that is the most annoying at the time;” ___ since he walks weird.”

Another question posed, “They like me, but I don’t like them back.”

One seventh-grader wrote, “__ used to like me and I didn’t like them back.”

An eighth-grader wrote, “This kid in 5th grade asked me out and I said no. Then he wouldn’t come around me and told everyone I was mean.”

Another question posed, “Have you ever avoided a friend?”

Replies included: “Yes, I got mad at them for telling a secret I had told them;” “___ because she gets annoying sometimes;” and “Yes, __ because he’s usually a brat in general.”

The Hancock County School District on Monday afternoon issued the following statement regarding the Hancock Middle School Yearbook:

“We are aware of the unfortunate fact that the Hancock Middle School 2020-2021yearbook contains sensitive and inappropriate comments from some of our students. The yearbook is student-led, student-published, and has, in the past, been an award-winning yearbook. This yearbook is, however, sponsor-and administrator-supervised; this yearbook should not have included the sensitive and inappropriate comments. Hancock Middle School has already taken measures to ensure that this never happens again.”