Ain't love grand?
Posted on 06/24/2007 5:49:13 PM PDT by RDTF
NEWARK, N.J. — The yearbooks were finally printed and ready to be picked up by students at Newark's East Side High School — but not before some officials snapped open their correcting pens to edit out a picture of two males kissing.
This was not art class, but staff afraid of parental backlash used markers to color over the picture, censoring it from every copy of the 2007 yearbook before distributing it, MyFoxNY.com reports.
Described as "illicit" and provocative by Newark's superintendent of schools, Marion Bolden, the photograph depicts a kiss between 18-year-old Andre Jackson and David Escobales.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Stand by for the ACLU to step in.
Meanwhile, “values neutral” sex education indoctrination classes will be conducted as scheduled...
Get ready for a whole lot more of this in schools and the workplace, etc. Pretty shortly it will be impossible for institutions and businesses to forbid cross dressing and public homosexual behavior. Wait and see, and it won’t be long in coming.
Why was the photo approved of and included in the first place ?
IF this picture wasn’t clearly more “provocative” than any pictures of male-female couples that hae been printed in the yearbook in recent years, this is going to turn out to be a pointless and somewhat expensive tantrum, since the school district will be ordered by a court (correctly) to reprint the photo and reinsert it in its correct place in every single yearbook. Postage both ways will also be paid by the school district. Note that this is all contingent on the initial “IF” in my statement. Frankly, nothing in this picture could possibly be any more “provocative” than what goes in the hallways and classrooms of a Newark public high school every day.
Ain't love grand?
You nasty!
When I was in high school, many seniors, as a cruel joke, voting for one of the ugliest and fattest girls in class as the Homecoming Queen. Years later, I found out from a teacher, the girl “won” but the teachers knew it was a farce and excluded her votes. The girl with 2nd most number of votes “won” the coveted title and was named Homecoming Queen.
High school students are dumb. Teachers, at one time, were voiced of reason and checks on student’s behavior. Now they have become enablers and they wouldn’t want to stifle the student’s personality or growth.
Teachers, with a few choice exceptions, are dumb.
Troglodytes have infested this place.
Gay kiss blacked out of yearbookIt’s not that high school students are dumb, it’s that high school itself is a socio-political crime which influences some people in a negative way.
I blame the liberals, not for the photo, which is disgusting, but for setting the environment where this is seen as a normal and healthy activity.
If God had intended homosexuality to be a normal acceptable activity, he would have given them the ability to procreate, which he didn’t.
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As long as parents don't have to see it, they're OK with it. See no evil...
That was my question. Apparently the faculty advisor thought the picture was ok, which makes me question the judgement of that advisor. I guess she or he thought no one but the kids ever look at the yearbook, so what does it matter? Or maybe he or she just wanted to include some 'diversity' in the yearbook.
The Newark city school district that 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 and embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him,'' according to the statement.
The district said it would 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.
At a news conference organized by Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, Jackson said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not told him she was sorry face-to-face and in public.
Because of that, he said he didn't accept her apology as sincere.
"I would accept an apology -- a public apology,'' said Jackson, who found out about the district's statement through the media.
The district spokeswoman, Valerie Merritt, had no immediate comment on whether Bolden would call or meet with Jackson.
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.''
In addition to Garden State Equality, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey also condemned actions taken by the district last week.
"With so many challenges the Newark Public Schools face in educating their students, what a waste that they took the time to teach a lesson in discrimination and censorship instead of equality and free speech,'' said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs.
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 4-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 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.
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.
update
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