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Stickers to cover yearbook photo of student on leash

By wire services
Published May 20, 2005

BOYNTON BEACH - School officials will use stickers to cover the yearbook photo of a Boynton Beach High School senior wearing a collar and leash after the teen's mother complained.

Robert Richards, 19, was elected "most whipped" by his classmates and photographed with then-girlfriend Melissa Finley, who was holding the leash.

Richards' mother, Jacqueline Nobles, said the picture reminded her of the era of slavery. Richards is black; Finley is white.

School district officials ordered stickers that will be used to cover the photos in 460 copies of the yearbook not yet distributed. They want the 240 students who already received their books to return them for alteration.

District officials agree that the photo is objectionable, and are investigating how it got past a yearbook adviser and into print, district spokesman Nat Harrington said.

SANFORD - A convicted sex offender faces a mandatory life prison sentence after being convicted of breaking into a Casselberry home and grabbing a 2-year-old girl from bed.

The girl's mother, Norma Soriano, woke up, screamed and grabbed her child out of the man's arms. Elliot Pietri, 36, was arrested a day later.

The victim's sister, then 8, was watching television in the same bed as her mother and the toddler when an intruder pried open a door in the family's mobile home two years ago. She testified that the man grabbed her by the arm first. She pulled away and he then grabbed her sister. She screamed, waking her mother. Pietri was convicted of exposing himself to a 4-year-old girl in Lee County in 1996. He also has a record for burglary, thefts and cocaine possession.

[Last modified May 20, 2005, 01:05:11]