As we slowly near graduation, the excitement over various senior activities grows. One tradition that has been widely enjoyed by all is “Senior Quotes.” This year, the UC High Yearbook has adopted new regulations for Senior Quotes that have sent many students into outrage.

    According to the UC Yearbook, “The quote MUST be from a *reliable and authentic source*, i.e. a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. or from a book, film, speech [or the like] NOT from you, your buddy Jon or something like your Starbucks order… Seniors will NOT be given another chance to re-submit a quote if their quote is deemed inappropriate, and students will NOT be contacted if their quote is rejected*” (ucyearbook.wordpress.com).

   There is truly no reason that students should be prohibited from using their own words to commemorate their high school experience. This is a denunciation of the individuality and creativity that the quotes should invite, as well as the fundamental right to freedom of speech. Most personal quotes students choose to use are simply inside jokes with friends or their life philosophies, not malicious statements that should be censored.

   For example, Senior Natalie Dhus was planning to have her Senior Quote be the simple phrase “deuces” as a play on her own last name, an obviously harmless self-made quote. But because this is her own quote, it would automatically be rejected by the quote checkers. According to Dhus, “The fact that they won’t let any self-made quotes through is purely lazy. It’s not hard to distinguish the inappropriate quotes from the harmless ones. They just want to make it harder to get quotes through so fewer people even attempt to send theirs in, making less work for them.” These rules will not result in more appropriate quotes but rather the absence of quotes altogether.

   The fact that seniors will not be informed if their quote is rejected further supports this theory. Quotes that are innocent by nature may be wrongfully deemed as inappropriate by someone reading, simply because they do not understand them. It is not fair that students will not even be given a second chance to submit a quote that will forever represent their high school experience. Seniors will have no way of knowing if their quote, something they may have been looking forward to for years, went through until they open the yearbook in June. Senior Ari Weizman explained, “These rules hurt me, because I’ve been excited to have a Senior Quote since freshman year, because it’s something I personally say, but now I can’t include it.” Seniors feel that something that they presumed was a given has been unrightfully taken from them.

   Not only are Senior Quotes important to individual seniors and their families, but to students of all grades as well. According to Senior Casey White, “These regulations have ruined the fun not only for us seniors but also for all the grades, because they love reading what the seniors have to say. The yearbook is meant for the graduating class and it should be used to document all the funny and crazy moment from the school year.” These regulations have taken away from the lighthearted and fun nature of senior quotes. What’s the point of the quotes at all if they don’t make people happy?

   We at The Commander believe that the 2019 Senior Quote restrictions are unnecessary and overzealous. Every senior deserves a quote that they feel reflects their true self at this point in their lives, but this is being made impossible by the quote censorship that has been implemented.