Sometimes, a Kiss is Not Just a Kiss

by: Deborah Jacobs

Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 12:35:20 PM EDT

Here are just a few of these stories: there was a school district in Washington State that didn't want to pay to mail the ACLU about 11 pages of public records, went to court and ended up writing the ACLU a check for almost $60,000 in attorney fees; or the school that suspended a student for having aspirin at school under a zero-tolerance policy; or the student suspended for having a chain on her Tweety Bird wallet to connect it to her jeans because they considered it a ''weapon.'' I could go on.

Then there is the more recent situation involving the Newark Public Schools, which blacked out the picture of a gay student and his boyfriend kissing in the yearbook -- but wait, fortunately, this one has a different outcome than the others.

In this case, Newark Public Schools Superintendent Marion Bolden, after learning the full facts of the matter and receiving an avalanche of angry phone calls and e-mails generated by our friends at Garden State Equality, reversed the decision to censor the picture -- and reversed it in a big way.

But, after getting the full facts, Bolden acted faster than most any school superintendent I've witnessed. The censorship took place late in the week of June 18. When she got the whole story, she agreed to reprint the defaced yearbooks. She also spent all of last weekend trying to reach the student who submitted the photo, Andre Jackson, to apologize to him. She was finally able to meet with him yesterday, on June 26, and their apparently tearful and difficult conversation moved the issue forward. She asked Jackson how she could try to repair the damage. He asked that his photo page be distributed at graduation, and she promised to try to make that happen in the couple days' turnaround time she had. She also reached out to his mother to apologize and urge her to attend graduation. She contacted Garden State Equality to personally apologize and acknowledged that the act was spurred by homophobia. And, she publicly apologized today in front of the entire East Side High School graduating class.

How do I know all this?

For one, it has been generously covered by the press. But, in addition, Bolden called me personally, perhaps in response to the ACLU-NJ's letter of concern about the issue, to let us know what she had done to make it right. Bolden was distressed, primarily concerned about how to address the hurt that the censorship had caused Jackson, other gay students and the student body in general. She seemed absolutely sick about it.

For the first time in my 15-plus-year career, I have witnessed a school superintendent putting aside her pride, leaving lawyers out of it and doing everything in her power to make it right. Her actions should serve as a model for others who find themselves in hot water over a poorly decided action. For the manner in which she ultimately handled the issue, she deserves our praise.