Source: Clovis News Journal, Clovis News Journal, KOB-TV, Associated Press via News9West
CLOVIS, N.M.-- Administrators of the school district here promise to give students at the local high school a lesson in official censorship next year.

They say administrators will exert greater control over next year's high school yearbook after student editors of the publication included photographs of two lesbian couples in this year's edition.

The pictures that caused the big stir show two lesbian couples along with nine straight couples in a feature on relationships. 

Student editor in chief Maggie Chavez and staff member Jessie Hardison told Clovis News-Journal last week that the decision to feature gay couples was a conscious one made with much consideration and discussion by the staff.

The staff wanted to be as diverse and inclusive as possible and wanted to make a product for all students to enjoy, they said. Though they themselves are not gay, the two said they felt strongly about including gays in the yearbook.

"We just wanted to show that there is a diversity, there (are) gay and lesbian couples in the school and they have a right to be in the yearbook just as much as anybody else does," Chavez said.

Photos of two lesbian couples along with narratives describing their relationships were included in a couples feature section titled “Do you want to go out?” Also pictured on the two-page spread were nine heterosexual couples.

While school staff check for obscenity, libel and other matters of legal concern, yearbook supervisor Carol Singletary said last week that the yearbook it is a student-produced publication. The content featuring gay students was not stopped by administrators, because, “It didn’t violate privacy, it wasn’t obscene, it wasn’t libelous ... it didn’t violate any of the district policies,” Singletary said.

School administrators later announced that the Singletary is no longer adviser of the student-run publication. Administrators claimed she had resigned before the controversy developed. Singletary declined to answer questions from Associated Press.

Reactions at the school have been mixed, the News-Journal reports.

"I’ve had couples come to me crying saying 'thank you'," Hardison said last week, and she’s also received anonymous threatening letters and been approached by students, parents and even teachers expressing anger. But she doesn’t regret the decision.

“It’s time for Clovis to come into the 21st century and be OK with people ... I love this town most of the time (but because of the reactions), it makes me feel sorry to be a human. ... Something little like this goes a long way and if we keep doing things like this, it might change things,” the 18-year-old said.

Clovis Schools Superintendent Rhonda Seidenwurm said last night that the school district will exercise more "oversight" next year after right-wing preachers and parents generated  a controversy over the photos shown in this year's edition.

Seidenwurm on Tuesday took responsibility for not reinstating an oversight policy this year, and apologized to parents and Clovis residents who were offended seeing lesbian couples in the section on relationships.

Yearbook staff members said they wanted the publication to be a reflection of the high school population, which includes gay people.

Administrators promised to take steps to be sure that future student editors at the publication display only a sanitized reflection of life at the school.

The school district will hold public study sessions to develop a "policy on oversight" of student publications, the superintendent said.

Christian groups and some parents in Clovis claim the picture of a gay couple is "inappropriate" and "offensive".

Nineteen Clovis residents, parents and Clovis High School students offered comments during Tuesday's school board meeting related to the yearbook staff’s decision to publish the photographs of lesbian couples.

More than 170 people crowded the Clovis Municipal Schools building conference room during the meeting.

Some critics of the yearbook said homosexuality is a sin and was not an appropriate subject in the yearbook. Supporters said the yearbook staff did the right thing by including gays as a part of the community.

Clovis resident Eugene Lovato said he supports the yearbook staff’s decision to publish the photographs. Lovato, who describes himself as a Catholic and a heterosexual, said the gay lifestyle permeates society and should not be hidden from students.

Church of the Nazarene Pastor Darwin Speicher said school administrators were "blindsided" by what he characterized as a yearbook staff’s "hidden agenda" to "promote" a "homosexual lifestyle".

“We request policies that would give administrative power of oversight so we can reflect the kind of morality of the majority of the community,” he said.

Administrators appeared to agree with him that, instead of trying to present a reflection of what's actually happening at the school, student editors should learn how to present the kind of fake fairy-tale version of life that will be appealing to folks like the pastor.

A former leutenant governor, Walter Bradley, who described himself as a parent and concerned Christian member of the community, helped inflame the controversy over the photos.

"I think it’s highly inappropriate to place that in that venue," he told Clovis News-Journal last week. "That is no place for that type of negligent exploitation of our kids. I do not in any way believe this reflects the attitudes and values of this community."

Bradley, a local businessman, threatened to withhold contributions from the school if administrators did not institute the kind of censorship he and his allies favor.

Will Cockrell is a member of the Christian Citizenship Team, a group at Central Baptist Church that “monitors political actions and social actions that come to bear on society that are counter to Christian doctrine.”

Cockrell helped mobilize right wing Christians throughout the community  to attend last night's school board meeting and speak out.

"We don’t think that it reflects anywhere close to the attitudes and the morals of the community," he told the News Journal last week. "I don’t have a child in school but I’m appalled. If I were the parents of those kids, I'd own that school. Those are minors."

The student editors of the publication, Chavez and Hardison, showed that they understand their responsibilities as journalists far better than their critics.

“This is in the community. (Students) are going to have to deal with it in their lifetime,” Chavez said, explaining openly gay couples are a common sight at school, often seen walking hand-in-hand.

Hardison and Chavez told the News-Journal that they too hold strong Christian values but the issue is a matter of discrimination.

“I believe God’s OK with it. I don’t think he cares what you wear, what color your skin is or who you’re with. I think he loves you for who you are,” Hardison said.

Relationship spreads have been in the yearbook for several years and have featured friends and couples, Hardison said, but never gay couples. Male gay couples invited to participate declined, she said, because they feared repercussions and possible violence.

Care was taken to ensure none of the photos depicted excessive public displays of affection, which would violate school policy, and all of those photographed gave permission and had ample opportunity to withdraw their consent prior to publication, Chavez and Hardison said.

It was intended, “not so much (to be) in your face, so much as ‘hey, this is happening, you should take notice of it,’” Chavez said.

As to whether future classes should follow suit, Hardison said each yearbook staff has a responsibility to represent the student body and will have to make their own decisions.

“If they do it, then I think it would be good. We can’t just turn our heads for the rest of our lives. It’s part of our society and it has to come out eventually,” she said.

Full article: Clovis superintendent apologizes for yearbook controversy | Clovis News-Journal
Yearbook creates concern | Clovis News-Journal
Parent slams 'disgusting' yearbook photo | KOB-TV
Clovis yearbook adviser no longer in that job | News9West