\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Mount Pleasant Area School District is one of several districts across the country cutting ties with school picture company Lifetouch after concerns surfaced on social media linking the company to individuals mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files.The superintendent notified families of the decision in a letter sent Wednesday.Social media posts circulating tied Lifetouch to the former CEO of an investment fund referenced multiple times in the Epstein files. Funds managed by Apollo Global Management purchased Lifetouch\u2019s parent company, Shutterfly, in 2019. At the time, Apollo\u2019s CEO was Leon Black, who, according to The Associated Press, had multiple meetings with Epstein and was mentioned thousands of times in the files.In a statement, Lifetouch\u2019s CEO said neither Black nor any Apollo executives ever had access to Lifetouch photos and that the company follows strict privacy guidelines. The statement read, \u201cLifetouch is not named in the Epstein files. The documents contain no allegations that Lifetouch itself was involved in, or that student photos were used in, any illicit activities.\u201dMount Pleasant Superintendent Tim Gabauer said the district acted in response to growing concern from the community.\u201cWhen you start to get phone calls, and you get emails, and you start to see social media, you monitor that, and you try to get a feel for, for where your community is at,\u201d Gabauer said. \u201cAnd, it became very evident to me that that it was it was time for us to, to move in a separate way, and, and put this behind us.\u201dGabauer said he does not have enough information to comment directly on the situation surrounding the files, but emphasized the district\u2019s priority is responding to community concerns.\u201cWhen that time comes that we have to make a determination, we make the determination,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s in the best interest of the students and the families at all times.\u201dGabauer said all photos already taken this fall are already school property, and the parent-teacher organization is continuing work on the yearbook as planned.The district will search for a new company to handle school photos moving forward.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Mount Pleasant Area School District is one of several districts across the country cutting ties with school picture company Lifetouch after concerns surfaced on social media linking the company to individuals mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files.<\/p>\n
The superintendent notified families of the decision in a letter sent Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Social media posts circulating tied Lifetouch to the former CEO of an investment fund referenced multiple times in the Epstein files. Funds managed by Apollo Global Management purchased Lifetouch\u2019s parent company, Shutterfly, in 2019. At the time, Apollo\u2019s CEO was Leon Black, who, according to The Associated Press, had multiple meetings with Epstein and was mentioned thousands of times in the files.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Lifetouch\u2019s CEO said neither Black nor any Apollo executives ever had access to Lifetouch photos and that the company follows strict privacy guidelines. The statement read, \u201cLifetouch is not named in the Epstein files. The documents contain no allegations that Lifetouch itself was involved in, or that student photos were used in, any illicit activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mount Pleasant Superintendent Tim Gabauer said the district acted in response to growing concern from the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start to get phone calls, and you get emails, and you start to see social media, you monitor that, and you try to get a feel for, for where your community is at,\u201d Gabauer said. \u201cAnd, it became very evident to me that that it was it was time for us to, to move in a separate way, and, and put this behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabauer said he does not have enough information to comment directly on the situation surrounding the files, but emphasized the district\u2019s priority is responding to community concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that time comes that we have to make a determination, we make the determination,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s in the best interest of the students and the families at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabauer said all photos already taken this fall are already school property, and the parent-teacher organization is continuing work on the yearbook as planned.<\/p>\n
The district will search for a new company to handle school photos moving forward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mount Pleasant Area School District is one of several districts across the country cutting ties with school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56035,56023,524,24683,1126,56034,1510,21146,56036,56033,56024,56025,56026,56027,16340,28,30,29,56029,56030,56032,56028,33473,6985,56037,56031],"class_list":{"0":"post-118044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-apollo","9":"tag-apollo-global-management","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-community-concerns","12":"tag-company","13":"tag-epstein-connection","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-former-ceo","16":"tag-investment-fund","17":"tag-jeffrey-epstein-file","18":"tag-jeffrey-epstein-files","19":"tag-leon-black","20":"tag-lifetouch","21":"tag-mount-pleasant-area-school-district","22":"tag-multiple-time","23":"tag-pennsylvania","24":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","25":"tag-pennsylvania-news","26":"tag-school-photos","27":"tag-school-picture-company","28":"tag-several-district","29":"tag-shutterfly","30":"tag-social-medium","31":"tag-statement","32":"tag-student-photo","33":"tag-superintendent-tim-gabauer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}