News
2007-06-26
School
administrators regret blacking out gay kiss photo from
yearbook
Newark, N.J.,
school officials who ordered staffers to use markers to
black out a picture of a male s
Newark, N.J.,
school officials who ordered staffers to use markers to
black out a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend
from all copies of a school yearbook now says it
regrets the decision.
Superintendent
Marion A. Bolden issued an apology to the student, Andre
Jackson, according to a statement released by the district
on Monday.
''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,'' her statement reads.
District
officials promised to reissue an ''un-redacted version'' of
the 2007 yearbook to any student of East Side High
School who wants one.
Bolden, through a
spokeswoman, declined a request for an interview.
Jackson planned
an afternoon news conference with Garden State Equality,
a gay rights group, which has condemned actions taken by the
district last week.
Previously,
Bolden had described the picture, which showed Andre
Jackson, 18, 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 4½-
by 5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over
his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown,
Pa. 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, questioned the decision to black out
the photo, noting that the yearbook is filled with pictures
of heterosexual couples kissing.
''There is no
rule about no gay pictures [or] no guys kissing,'' Jackson
has said.
Newark public
schools have about 42,000 students.
The district is
the state's largest and is one of three in New Jersey
that are under state control. It is among 31 districts in
the state's neediest areas that get special financial
aid. (AP)
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