Our story about Sydney Spies and the Durango High School yearbook editor’s decision to not run her yearbook photo has gone viral, gathering international and national attention.

Spies most recently appeared on the Today Show and it was the most commented piece on their website in the shows history. We have an piece analyzing why this story has become so popular in Sundays paper.

We wanted to take the time to explain to readers how we came to the decision to run her rejected photo in the newspaper. Readers have said the photo is inappropriate and agreed with the student editor’s decision to run it, so what made the photo acceptable in a family newspaper?

The answer is a pretty simple one: How could we expect our readers to make a judgement about whether the decision to reject the photo was reasonable without actually seeing the picture?

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

We didn’t feel readers would get the full scope of the story or be able to make a decision without seeing the photo first-hand.