BY ANTHONY MARTINEZ 

For high school senior Sydney Spies, her biggest worry isn’t looking awkward in her senior picture -- she’s getting flack for looking too sexual. Here’s ABC…

“A senior portrait that’s way too racy for one high school in Denver is being banned from the yearbook and we’re gonna show it to you. You be the judge. 18-year-old Sydney Spies decided to wear a flimsy yellow skirt and a really skimpy top for her picture. Nice try, but the school said ‘no way’. She and her parents are fighting the decision and may even take legal action.”

Against heaps of criticism, both mother and daughter are claiming that freedom of expression can’t be overruled by a high school yearbook staff. Turns out, it can. And KNXV thinks Spies’s mother needs to take a closer look at how her daughter is choosing to ‘express’ herself.

“‘I’m actually a little surprised that the mom is quite for it, frankly’.

‘You know, I’m not surprised at all. Unfortunately, I have seen my daughter’s Facebook page, not her page, but friends of hers, acquaintances. But some of the pictures that these young girls are posting, they look like strippers’.  

‘So, again, I think it’s a lack of some parents caring.’”

The Spies immediately hit the streets in an organized protest at Durango High School after the pic was pulled. In this photo, you can see Sydney, center, with a sign reading “We will not be intimidated by the administration.” But CBS 4 warns, it’s not the administration they need to worry about.

“‘Can they ban a picture simply because they don’t like it?’

‘You know, in fact, they can. Adam Goldstein, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center told me that student editors have complete discretion of what to print or not to print, in this case. And unlike the government, they aren’t bound by the first amendment.’”

The mother and daughter are currently working with a civil lawyer in Denver who is reviewing the case. But on another note, Spies just submitted her second photo to the yearbook. This one-- didn’t make the cut either. Here’s 9 News...

“‘On your left, the first senior picture Spies submitted to the yearbook staff at her school. That one was a ‘no’. On the right, the one both she and her mother hoped to get approved this morning.’

‘The student editors say if Spies or her mother want to run the photo as a senior ad, they can pay for that space in the yearbook. Late tonight they told us she accepted that offer.’”