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Parents furious after students glorify vaping, cussing in Lake Brantley yearbook

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — School districts with the Seminole County School District are apologizing to parents after a couple of controversial articles appeared in the Lake Brantley yearbook.

One of the articles was on vaping and showed several pictures of students in the act.

A spokesperson for the school district told Channel 9's Jeff Levkulich that school officials are promising changes to the proofing process. They already have several levels when it comes to proofing.

A spokesperson for the district said the vaping article and others should never have made it in the book.

The yearbook contains articles on the trends at the time. School officials said the article, "Vape Brantley," which does talk about the dangers of vaping to an extent, was never caught in the proofing process.

"But the student interviews and the student photos of that vaping, which is a prohibited thing in our schools, that should never have been in the yearbook,” said Michael Lawrence with Seminole County Public Schools.

Another small caption in the book shows one student bragging about 14 referrals he received this year. The student wrote, "One time I cussed out a teacher and left the classroom.. It was so worth it."

Lawrence said there are multiple proofing processes before the book is published.

Lake Brantley has a yearbook advisor and the school administration goes through and proofs the yearbook as well; how it was missed is unknown.

"Even if they get it back, there is an opportunity to black out or put a sticker over a page or picture of something if they happen to miss something before those yearbooks are issued to the students and the families,” Lawrence said.

Parents and students had mixed opinions on the yearbook.

“It's just sad, especially glorifying violence to teachers and bad behavior; that's asinine. Who would even approve that at all?” parent Gabby Weaver said.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh wow, I would not put that in a high school publication,’ but thinking about it now, it's like, whatever,’” said student Sarah Mclachlan.

The school is still determining if anyone will face any discipline.

Lawrence said the buck ultimately stops with Lake Brantley's principal.

Parents can return the yearbooks for a full refund.

Jeff Levkulich

Jeff Levkulich, WFTV.com

Jeff Levkulich joined the Eyewitness News team as a reporter in June 2015.