by hand with a magic marker when they handed out books. Students had the option of paying $150, in addition to the cost of the year book, for their own page of pictures:

The decision to blot out the photo was made by Marion A. Bolden, the Newark Public Schools superintendent. Ms. Bolden said that an assistant superintendent had alerted her to the picture on Thursday afternoon. \ufffdI thought that the photo was suggestive,\ufffd Ms. Bolden said.

She said she made her decision without seeing the entire yearbook, and looked at only the one page.

...

Ms. Bolden said she did not intend for the officials\ufffd actions to be taken as anti-gay. \ufffdI\ufffdm a superintendent that talks about tolerance,\ufffd she said. \ufffdI don\ufffdt have a problem at all.\ufffd

She said she felt that the photo was provocative for a high school yearbook, regardless of whether it showed heterosexual or homosexual kissing. But she said it was a decision that was made too quickly and without taking into consideration other couples\ufffd pictures. She said she was told on Thursday that neither of the men were students, adding that she would have been more hesitant to black out a picture of a student.

\ufffdIt looked like two men kissing,\ufffd she said. \ufffdTo me, it looked fairly illicit. It was pointed out as problematic, so maybe I read more into it.\ufffd

[link|http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/education/24yearbook.html|NYT] 

It is hard to take Ms. Bolden at her word that she is not anti-gay when she doesn't bother to verify the facts before she over reacted. She should give the students new year books before it becomes a bigger issue.