In January, the Branham Yearbook class made an Instagram post announcing that they would be getting rid of senior quotes for the class of 2025, which was immediately met with protest from many seniors before a deal was made to reinstate them.

According to Yearbook teacher Gabrielle Gramegna, going through and verifying quotes to make sure they were school appropriate was too much work to justify their inclusion.

“There were many issues in prior years of people choosing inappropriate or offensive quotes,” Gramegna said. “Because I don’t have the time or energy to cycle through 400 quotes, we opted to not do it.”

According to Gramegna, she would have to manually go through every quote to double check them, a process that would take weeks.

“It’s just more work for me,” she said. “I don’t want to have to go through hundreds of quotes saying no, no, no, no.”

Many left comments on the post making this announcement, including senior Avishawd Yarisaied, who decided to reach out to Gramegna.

Together, they worked out a deal: seniors would be allowed to submit quotes, but if there was a single inappropriate one, they would all be thrown out.

“I really, really, really appreciate it,” Yarisaied said. “I know a lot of seniors were happy that they were reinstated.”

However, Yarisaied pointed out that this deal probably could not have been made without the support of many students.

“I’m proud of us, as a senior class, for banding together and getting the opportunity back,” she said. “Of course, hopefully we can have the senior quotes and not have one person ruin it for everyone.”

Gramegna is hopeful that the quotes will be publishable, but has her doubts.

“I want to believe that [the seniors] will all keep it together and be responsible,” she said. “However, my gut says that somebody is going to ruin it for everybody.”

Yarisaied is more positive, and mentioned how valuable she believes these quotes are to the Branham community.

“It is something that we all collectively care about a lot,” she said. “It’s sweet, nostalgic and cute. It’s a way to honor your memory as a senior in high school.”

Senior quotes are due at the end of this month, Feb. 28.