Sheriff’s Office: Be Careful of School First Day Pictures!

It's back-to-school week for Calcasieu Parish students. The teachers have been prepping classrooms, you've been buying school supplies, and the kids are getting more and more annoying as we get closer to the big day. August 12 is the day! I still find it a bit dumb that they only go one day this week, then get a weekend. Must. Be. Nice! I really don't remember that situation back in my school days, but that was a LONG time ago.

As Friday rolls around, our social media sites will be absolutely full of "first day of school" pictures. Some will be cute, some will be absolutely hilarious. I have some old polaroids somewhere of the few times my mom took pictures of me on my first day of school. It was hard to go, both mom and dad worked full time and the last thing any of us wanted to do was take a back-to-school picture. I remember my grandmother would fuss at my mom for not doing it. It was hard back then, the polaroid was always out of film because I would take it and take pictures with it just to see them pop out the front!

Although I don't have kids of my own, this information from the McHenry County Sheriff's Office really is some good information for those parents that are EXTRA on first-day photos. Typically, the kid holds up a sign or chart talking about their first day of school, their weight, height, favorite color, and more. It's really cute to go back and look on as they grow. Side note, I wanted to be a radio DJ at 10 years old. Nailed it!

The Sheriff's office posted a picture of an example of what info to share on social media, and what you should probably cross out if you decided to show off little Timmy's school outfit.

Information like this, no matter how your privacy settings are set on social media, can be used against you, your family, and your child. If you think that your friends list wouldn't do anything like that, think again. All it takes is some rogue cousin to save the picture and repost it to their own page to say how proud they are about the kid and now it's out in the world that fast.

I'm not saying DON'T share the photos, just maybe use these as guidelines as to what to share and NOT to share on social media. Also, yes, these are all school photos of me sprinkled in. That turtle neck and chain were classy.