I was told that my child would not be able to attend a class unless I consented to their image being used for advertising purposes. I don't believe that any family should be forced to have their child's image used on social media as a prerequisite to attend a class. When I emailed them back explaini...
Response from Owner
Hi Zoey, our apologies for not yet responding to your second email (we did offer an explanation in our response to your first objection to the photo release). Our whole business, including all classes taught, admin work, and cleaning, is run by just us (the two owners). We’re very busy and respond to emails in order of urgency. We did politely and apologetically provide a same-day response to your email asking to opt out of the photo/media release and have included the text of that email below. It is true we did not yet respond to your second email objecting to the release. We made it clear in our first response that we could not accommodate your request to opt out of the media release, and explained why. We have a very full youth program, and we often post pictures of the class at large on social media and our website. Given the number of students we have, it is just not possible for us to take photos of our practices and simultaneously keep track of every individual student who appears in a class photo, or to attempt to keep track of which individuals signed or did not sign certain releases. To continue to be able to provide an awesome space for kids to learn jiu jitsu in Portland, where overhead costs are high and where we have many competitors, we must market our programs on social media and on our website. Our waiver and media release were drafted by and are used under the guidance of our attorney. Finally, requiring a photo and media release is a common practice in our industry. Here is our response to your first email objecting to the photo/media release: “Hi Zoey, Unfortunately, we can't accommodate any requests to opt out of the photo/media release. I'm so sorry. Posting photos of our classes is an important part of marketing our business, and we share photos of the class on our website and social media. We don't have the ability to make sure that individual students don't ever appear in photos of the class. Another issue is that sometimes parents in our program share photos and videos of the class, which we sometimes share in turn. We apologize for not being able to accommodate your request. Let me know if you want to cancel your trial class. Hannah”