School photographer fired after offering to eat the soul of a student

In today’s tough hiring environment, sometimes it’s hard to find the right fit. A recent story, in Virginia, involving a school photographer shows why standards have to be maintained. According to the Washington Post (and numerous other outlets), a Lifetouch school photographer was reported to have lost her job after asking an elementary school student inappropriate questions.

The principal of Chittum Elementary School in Chesapeake, Bridget Outlaw, said in an email to parents last week a photographer hired to take school pictures was escorted off campus for making “inappropriate comments” to students, WTKR reported.

In an interview, parent Rachel Fjeld told WTKR her son was sitting to have his school picture taken when the photographer allegedly asked him, “Can I steal your identity?” and “Can I eat your soul?”

“You can say all the things you want to say about good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, or demons or whatever, but at the end of the day what was said was not funny, and it wasn’t OK. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation,” Fjeld said. “I know people are trying to say, ‘Oh she’s just joking. It was just funny,’ but it’s not funny. That’s not funny. And what that doesn’t do is put any child at ease, it just scares them.”

“Her next question was, ‘Well, then what can I eat?’ He told me, he said, ‘Mommy I didn’t know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, ‘You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,’ and her response was, ‘Demons don’t eat noodles.’”

According to the Washington Post, a spokesman from Lifetouch’s parent company, Shutterfly, told WTKR that the photographer involved in the incident was no longer employed as a photographer by Lifetouch and an internal investigation is underway.

“At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph,” the company said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties.”

See the WTKR TV report below: