Two openly gay high school students in Missouri found their yearbook photos accompanied by blank spaces instead of the inspirational quotes they had chosen. Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz, both seniors at Kearney High School, selected light-hearted, humorous messages about coming out that school officials deemed offensive.
Slivinski's chosen quote read: 'Of course I dress well. I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing.' Swartz's quote was: 'If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should have to live in the closet.' When Slivinski opened his yearbook, he told KCTV5 that 'nothing was there.'
'I'm comfortable in my own skin and with who I am,' Slivinski said. 'It felt like the district took that from me.' The school district initially stated that the quotes were removed to avoid offending other students, but later issued an apology.
'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,' the statement read. '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 added that staff regularly receives training 'around issues of diversity' and will use the incident as a learning opportunity. Swartz expressed disappointment, saying, 'They need to know what they do is wrong. I want to tell my story about what happened.' The students plan to print stickers with their original quotes to place in their classmates' yearbooks.
