A New Jersey school Superintendent has apologised to a student after a photo of him kissing his boyfriend was struck from all 230 copies produced. When Newark Superintendent of Schools Marion Bolden saw the photo of openly gay East Side High School student Andre Jackson kissing his boyfriend on a page of the school yearbook which Jackson had purchased, she ordered the photos to be blackened out with a marker pen. The photo was on a page in a "tribute" section of the book, in which students purchase pages for $150 (in addition to the $85 cost of the yearbook) and are able to post photos of themselves and friends. According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, "Rules for publication of the pages prohibited shots of gang signs, rude gestures and graphic photos, said Benilde Barroqueiro, an East Side senior graduating with Jackson. 'You know, it couldn't be too provocative. No making out, no tongue,' she said." Bolden said last week the same-sex kiss “looked provocative. If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture." Other photos of heterosexual students kissing were allowed to remain. According to the New York Times, "On the page immediately opposite Mr. Jackson's, a young man and a young woman kiss on a couch, his hand on her leg as she sits on his lap." Jackson told the New York Times: "I didn't intend to say, 'Oh hey, look at me, I'm gay.' It was just a picture showing my emotion, saying that I'm happy, you know, whatever. It was to look back on as a memory. I was upset. I was hurt. I felt embarrassed and abused." He said he threw his yearbook away. "I didn't feel right. What I wanted to see wasn't there." New Jersey gay equality group ‘Garden State Equality' was shocked to hear of the story. Chairman Steven Goldstein said: "This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out. Her (Bolden) trying to erase a student and his boyfriend is a metaphor for her trying to erase the gay and lesbian community out of Newark and its school system. "It's wrong and it's ridiculous. The second it hit the Web I started getting calls. "This is not only homophobic, not only an egregious lack of judgment." The school then apologised in a statement yesterday: "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. "Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets and embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him." The school has also offered uncensored versions of the yearbook to any East Side high School student who wants one. The yearbook picture is available to view on the link below. Ref: Towleroad (m)