School apologizes for censoring gay kiss

[CaptJodan]

Couldn't think of a better title at the moment.

School Apologizes for Censoring Gay Kiss
By JEFFREY GOLD,AP
Posted: 2007-06-26 11:22:28
Filed Under: Nation
NEWARK, New Jersey (June 26) -- A New Jersey school district said it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.

Andre Jackson, the student, said Monday that he was disappointed that the Newark schools superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he did not accept it as sincere.

"I would accept an apology - a public apology," said Jackson, 18.

Jackson said he learned of the apology through the media.

The district issued a statement Monday saying it regretted the decision and that it would issue an unredacted version of the yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.

"The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph," the district said.

"Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him."

District spokeswoman Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.

But Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Jackson had not heard from the district by 10 p.m. Monday.

"They don't have a meeting set up, it's not true," Goldstein said. "The school district hasn't contacted him. Whether they reach out to him on Tuesday remains to be seen."

Jackson said his teachers, classmates and his parents all knew he was gay and that his sexual orientation was never a problem at school.

"I've never had to deal with this before," he said. "It's shocking. It's crazy."

Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, as "illicit."

"If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture," Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions.

In the photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district's assistant superintendent who oversees the city's high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.

The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.

Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.

Newark public schools have about 42,000 students, making it the largest district in New Jersey.

Source: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/school-apo ... 0000000001

Come on...is there really something exceptionally more illicit about turning your head over your right shoulder and kissing someone than other forms of kissing?

Incidentally, the poll numbers are sadder than I thought they would be.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

*shrugs*

Any photos of people kissing weren't allowed in my yearbook. But if they did generally allow shots of people kissing and banned his, yeah, that's more than a little disciminatory.

And generally when you apologize to someone, you apologize *to* them, not to a video camera.

[CaptJodan]

Any photos of people kissing weren't allowed in my yearbook. But if they did generally allow shots of people kissing and banned his, yeah, that's more than a little disciminatory.

Oh absolutely. I actually don't care if a school decides to ban pictures invovling kissing if they feel it violates...whatever. But clearly in this particular case his was excluded while others were allowed, under the guise that it was more illicit somehow than the others.

[Justforfun000]

Just another example of censorship that basically tries to appease bigots and their feelings over the right to free expression.

It's amazing how negative emotions always get the initial consideration over positive expressions of behavior. It really says something about out society.