Administrators at Louisiana State University have apologized for censoring photographs of male students who had painted crosses on their chests at a football game, the Daily Caller reports. "We erred in our judgment and we have communicated our apologies to the group of young men represented in the photo, whose school spirit is second to none," said Ernest Ballard, director of media relations at LSU. Following the football team's Oct. 13 win, school officials sent out a photo of the Painted Posse -- Christian students who paint their bodies with school colors and small crosses for home games -- in a weekly email newsletter, and students were shocked to see that the crosses had been edited out of the otherwise untouched photo. Administrators later admitted to altering the image to prevent other students from being offended -- a decision they now regret, according to Ballard. "We did not intend to offend anyone by the editing of this photograph and in the future we will not make this kind of edit," he said. According to a statement on their Facebook page, the students accepted the apology. "We, the members of the Painted Posse, do not agree with the university's recent decision to airbrush crosses out of the photo of some of our members. We ... acknowledge the efforts of the LSU administration and look forward to serving the university as both fans and students."
