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School apologises to gay pupil
26/06/2007 14:13 - (SA)
Jeffrey Gold
New Jersey - 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 apologised to the student.
Andre Jackson, the student, said on 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 on 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.
A personal apology
"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 apologises to Mr Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him."
District spokesperson Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.
But Steven Goldstein, chairperson of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Jackson had not heard from the district by 22:00 on Monday (02:00 GMT on Tuesday).
"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."
An illicit picture
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.
- AP
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