Taking and publishing photographs of kids doing school activities may not be hard-hitting journalism, but it's an important element of community news.

Our photographer, Brenda Steurer, and others spend a lot of time in the schools chronicling everyday events. Our school systems are our communities' lifeblood. It's just as important to get the names and faces of students and teachers in the Times as it is to report what our elected officials are up to.

But just because taking photographs in schools isn't investigative journalism doesn't mean that it isn't difficult or frustrating from time to time.

On Tuesday, Brenda shot photos at a Monroe Middle School intrasquad track meet. She returned with a number of good pictures, and we decided which of the four or five photos from that group we'd consider for publication in Wednesday's paper.

Because there are so many kids at an event like the track meet, it's more efficient for Brenda to get the names of students after we'd narrowed our photo choices. She gets students' names by communicating (via e-mail, fax or a personal visit) with school personnel.

For Wednesday's paper, we had a really nice photo of kids taking off from the starters' line. It was going to be the "lead" in the front-page collection of photos from the event.

But we couldn't use the photo, because a parent of one of the students in the picture had signed a form at the start of the school year prohibiting the student's face and name from being in the newspaper.

That's a parent's right, and I certainly agree a parent should have the ability to protect their child in any way they see fit.

But it can be frustrating, especially when we learn an hour or two before deadline that we can't use a photo we'd planned to use on the front page.

So we chose another photo, similar to the other but not quite as strong, to lead the front-page package.