COLUMBIA, Mo., May 29 (UPI) -- A Missouri high school student was arrested for changing a student's last name in the yearbook to read as "masturbate," officials said.
Kaitlyn Booth, 17, a student at Hickman High School in Columbia, changed her fellow yearbook staff worker's last name from Mastain, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported Sunday.
Booth was arrested May 14 on suspicion of the felony of first-degree property damage and of harassment.
The school's principal, Tracey Conrad, declined to discuss the punishment Booth faced at school, the Daily Tribune reported.
"Cost was the biggest factor. We didn't know how much it was going to cost to rectify the situation. It was defacing property," Conrad said.
The school chose to forgo reprinting the approximately 720 yearbooks, which would have cost around $41,000, said Kim Acopolis, the yearbook adviser. Instead, the yearbook staff spent around 12 hours putting stickers over the student's defaced name.
The principal said the act was the act of one student only and that staff and students were ready to move on.
"I was kind of annoyed. It was stupid, but I wasn't that upset," said Raigan Mastain.
Mastain told Acopolis about her name being changed, but said she was surprised Booth had been arrested.
"When you're in high school, you do stuff that is not necessarily the smartest, and this was an example of that," she said. "What (Booth) did wasn't right, but I don't think it should affect her for the rest of her life."
