Back when I graduated from high school in 1979, you had no choice about who was taking your senior picture for the school’s yearbook. Shortly after that, a photographer in the small upstate New York city of Norwich sued on behalf of students and their families for choice. Because of that, New York State allows a student to have senior pictures taken at any studio they would like.

Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from a local studio on Thursday, shortly after retrieving a large envelope to my soon-to-be senior son from the mail from the same studio. I had not asked what was in the envelope, figuring it was a pitch to have pictures taken at the studio. My son glanced over the brochure but did not even read the letter. The studio was calling to say that they have a contract with the school district and that it is possible they pre-scheduled an appointment for my son during Regents examination week. Now, if my son had not recently broken his ankle and was upstairs resting, the studio had wanted to speak to him. They made an appointment, mailed information to the minor student with information about a pre-scheduled appointment and called to confirm or change said appointment with that minor student. That would be all fine and dandy if said minor could pay for his or her own pictures. At today’s rates, Mom is going to have trouble doing that.

In my mind, having all contact going through the minor student is a way to attempt to circumvent the law that was in place since the early 1980s. Since most of this year’s senior class probably think that 1980 was an ancient time – as it was, after all, at least a decade before they were born, chances are they do not know they do not have to do business with whoever the school district chooses.

A friend had called this same studio a month prior to her son receiving the packet and scheduled an appointment around his summer camp activities. Her son received the same packet of information with a pre-scheduled appointment that was not the time his mother had arranged. The studio is only trying its hardest to hard sell an appointment that has not yet been made.

Nowhere in the information that was sent by the studio does it say you have a choice. The letter does imply that this is where you have to go. Nowhere does the school offer any information to students or parents regarding choice. Why is It that a studio can not tell the whole truth but be a respectable business?