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EAST TEXAS \u2014 Following Lifetouch Photography\u2019s involvement in a controversy regarding the Epstein files, numerous school districts throughout East Texas are canceling their partnerships with the company. According to our news partner KETK, districts that decided to end their partnership with Lifetouch earlier this week, following the allegations, include: Athens ISD, Kemp ISD, Malakoff ISD, Cross Roads ISD, Van ISD, Edgewood ISD and Winnsboro ISD.<\/p>\n
In the released Jeffrey Epstein files, Leon Black, the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, which is the parent company of Lifetouch, is accused of making at least $158 million in payments to Epstein for \u201cpurported tax and estate planning advice.\u201d However, an investigation by the United States Senate Committee on Finance found that the money was used to finance Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking operations.<\/p>\n
After the allegations were made, Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy stated that the company remains committed to protecting all of its customers, including students.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, Lifetouch is a proud and trusted partner to thousands of educational institutions, and we take the privacy of all students we photograph extremely seriously,\u201d Group Chief Executive Officer Ken Murphy said in a letter. \u201cWhen Lifetouch photographers take your student\u2019s picture, that image is safeguarded for families and schools only, with no exceptions. Lifetouch does not \u2013 and has never \u2013 provided images to any third party.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite this statement, several East Texas school districts have since parted ways with Lifetouch. <\/p>\n
\u201cVan ISD is aware of concerns regarding student photographs and our partnership with Lifetouch,\u201d Van ISD said. \u201cPlease know that the safety of our students is always our top priority \u2014 both physically and digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kemp ISD said it ended its partnership with Lifetouch after the recent allegations due to safety concerns.
\n\u201cKemp ISD is aware of the recent and widespread concerns regarding Lifetouch Photography,\u201d the district said. \u201cDue to safety concerns and in an effort to protect all students and staff, Kemp ISD is cancelling all scheduled photography and discontinuing service with Lifetouch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several districts that have canceled their partnership with Lifetouch stated that for the remainder of the school year, individual and group photos will be taken by staff members or students in the yearbook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EAST TEXAS \u2014 Following Lifetouch Photography\u2019s involvement in a controversy regarding the Epstein files, numerous school districts throughout East Texas are canceling their partnerships with the company. According to our news partner KETK, districts that decided to end their partnership with Lifetouch earlier this week, following the allegations, include: Athens ISD, Kemp ISD, Malakoff ISD, … Continue reading Schools cut ties with photographer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1480604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/352538116_2026492811022935_5253745597335354426_n.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 17:38:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/352538116_2026492811022935_5253745597335354426_n.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1480490"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1480654,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480490\/revisions\/1480654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1480604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1480490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1480490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1480490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}