Virginia school picture photographer loses job after allegedly asking young students, 'Can I eat your soul?'

A Virginia elementary school photographer reportedly lost her job after being accused of making improper remarks to young students, including allegedly asking one boy, “Can I eat your soul?” 

The principal of Chittum Elementary School in Chesapeake, Bridget Outlaw, said in an email to parents last week that a photographer hired to take school pictures was escorted off campus for making “inappropriate comments” to students, WTKR reported. The photographer, who was not named by school or company officials, was employed by Lifetouch, a family and school photography service owned by Shutterfly. 

In an interview, parent Rachel Fjeld told WTKR that her son was sitting to have his school picture taken when the photographer allegedly asked him, “Can I steal your identity?” and “Can I eat your soul?” 

“You can say all the things you want to say about good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, or demons or whatever, but at the end of the day what was said was not funny, and it wasn’t OK. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation,” Fjeld said. “I know people are trying to say, ‘Oh she’s just joking. It was just funny,’ but it’s not funny. That’s not funny. And what that doesn’t do is put any child at ease, it just scares them.”

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“She asked him, ‘Can I steal your identity?’ His response was just, ‘No.’ Her next question was, ‘Can I eat your soul?’ And, you know, when he was expressing it to us he was crying, he was very upset and he said ‘No, no,’” Fjeld said of the exchange between her son and the photographer. 

“Her next question was, ‘Well, then what can I eat?’ He told me, he said, ‘Mommy I didn’t know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, ‘You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,’ and her response was, ‘Demons don’t eat noodles.’”

The mother, who initially sounded the alarm about the alleged remarks in a since-privatized Facebook post, also thanked the elementary school for their swift response. 

A school bus arrives at George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, on Aug. 21, 2023. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“It went to the principal, who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it – we so appreciate it. They were very quick. They immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us,” Fjeld told the outlet.

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Once the comments were reported, school administration “immediately addressed the issue, and this individual was escorted off of school property,” Outlaw said in an email to the school community last week, according to the local station. “Parents of students who reported the concern were notified.”

“We want to commend our students for quickly reporting the incident,” Outlaw said. “We are thankful that our message of ‘see something, say something’ was effectively used in this situation.”

This file photo shows a photographer and school children during “picture day” at Rogers International School on Sept. 23, 2020, in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore/Getty Images)

On Friday, a Shutterfly spokesperson told WTKR that the photographer involved in the Chittum Elementary incident was no longer employed as a photographer by Lifetouch and an internal investigation is underway. 

“At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph,” the company said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously, and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties.”