Two openly gay high school students in Missouri found that their yearbook photos were accompanied by blank spaces instead of the inspirational quotes they’d chosen.
Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz both picked light-hearted, humorous messages about coming out that were deemed offensive by school officials.
Slivinski’s read: ‘Of course I dress well. I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing.’
While Swartz chose: ‘If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should have to live in the closet.’
“I'm comfortable in my own skin and with who I am,” he said. “It felt like the district took that from me.”
Kearney High said the decision was made to remove the quotes so that other students wouldn’t be offended—but has since released a statement apologising.
“Each year, graduating seniors are provided an opportunity to pick a favourite quote to be placed in the yearbook. In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published. It is the school’s practice to err on the side of caution.
“Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect. We sincerely apologise to those students.”
The statement went on to say that staff regularly receives training “around issues of diversity” but will use the incident as a learning opportunity for the future.
“They need to know what they do is wrong,” Swartz said. “I want to tell my story about what happened.”
The students plan to print out stickers with their original quotes to place in their classmates’ yearbooks.
“I'm proud to be from Kearney and I'm proud to be who I am,” Slivinski said. “I'm just disappointed at what happened.”
