Mr. Bigglesworth gets into the schenectady high yearbook

Last week, we reported on the plight of Draven Rodriguez, an optimistic 16-year-old student who tried to appear in his senior yearbook photo with his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth. Well, it turns out that his principal at Schenectady High School in New York has finally quashed his dream and decreed that the following photo will not be published in the yearbook. (All lasers the student’s own.)

Instead, the powers that be at Schenectady High have mooted a compromise of sorts, with Draven and Mr. B being asked to pose with the principal, Diane Wilkinson, and her dog, a no-doubt snide-looking Chihuahua called Vivienne. The alternate photo will apparently appear on the principal’s page and include a message in support of animal adoption and rescue.

The image below appears on Draven’s Instagram with the following message: “Just a teaser on what’s to come with my #senior #portraits #cats, #lasers and #awkward faces tba”

Talking to the Times Union, school district spokesperson Karen Corona explained, “It was the principal’s idea — she went to the student with it, and he loved it.” That might be the party line, but it sounds like a clear case of a certain principal wanting to hop on someone else’s social media gravy train to me.

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About Phillip Mlynar: The self-appointed world’s foremost expert on rappers’ cats. When not penning posts on rap music, he can be found building DIY cat towers for his adopted domestic shorthair, Mimosa, and collecting Le Creuset cookware (in red). He has also invented cat sushi, but it’s not quite what you think it is.