From "School Apologizes for Censoring Gay Kiss" by Jeffrey Gold, posted 6/26/07 at AOLNews.com
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.
..."I've never had to deal with this before," he said. "It's shocking. It's crazy."
I'll tell you what's shocking and crazy - that the school actually apologized for holding up the moral standard that most parents and taxpayers subscribe to. Our society does not YET recognize homosexual acts as the legal equivalent of heterosexual. It will never be the moral equivalent - regardless of what the law says. The decision to block out the photo was a good one.
The school district should have stuck to its guns. By apologizing, they have surrendered without a fight in the battle for the hearts and minds of our children.
We are in desperate need of more people who have the courage to fight for what's right - to hold up the righteous standard regardless of criticism - especially in our schools. Unfortunately, ours is NOT an age of courage...
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