From the Daily Comet:
When Monique Verdin wears her rented tuxedo to the Ellender High prom Saturday night, nobody will stand in her way.
Terrebonne Parish school officials said Monday they are backing off enforcement of a school-based rule — also contained in policies at the district's other three high schools — that mandates tuxes for boys and gowns for girls.
Verdin, 19, and her father, Jody Bergeron, were told Friday by the school's principal, Cory Butler, and high-schools supervisor Tony Authement that the teen would be allowed to buy a ticket to the prom but barred from entrance if she wore a tuxedo.
Authement confirmed Friday that the district planned to enforce the rule. On Monday, however, he said attorneys advised him the stance would be difficult to defend in court.
“We are going to allow her,” Authement said. “It was an easy call,” said attorney Berwick Duval, who represents the School Board. “It's a First Amendment issue.”
“It's a good thing,” the teenager said. “They shouldn't have put me through so much trouble like that.”
On Monday, when I read the previous story that Monique would not be permitted to attend the prom wearing a tuxedo, "based on long-held tradition", I said to Grandpère that the decision by the school authorities very likely would not stand and, indeed, it did not.
Monique should not have been put through so much trouble. The school authorities would have done better to seek legal advice before they insisted that the rule would be enforced, then they would not have had to back away from their initial decision.
Authement said the rules mandating gender-specific dress for proms will likely be scrapped altogether.
A wise decision.
Terrebonne Parish is just south of Lafourche Parish, where I live.
How petty some of these rules are. Petty becomes oppressive when someone tries to enforce them.
ReplyDeleteFrom the photo, the definition of "tuxedo" appears to have changed from when I was growing up.
ReplyDeleteA wíse decision,mindeed.
ReplyDeleteI should have gone to my prom and worn a dress; a black velvet strapless one piece with slits up the thighs, plus heels and pearls. I already had the Rita Hayworth pinup hair.
ReplyDeleteI'd have gotten the snot beaten out of me, but I'd have been the classiest dame in the place.
Sorry, mens suits. I wasn't paid for the ad. Zap.
ReplyDeleteYes, "Sir", petty and oppressive. I know you'd never do such a thing.
Ormonde, these are different times. The culture is racing away from elders like you and me. The supervisor should have told Monique she could wear her tux, but only if it was the traditional black tie outfit.
Counterlight, if only you had gone to your prom as Rita Hayworth, and if only there was a photo to immortalize the moment - before you got the snot beat out of you.
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ReplyDeleteI wish Counterlight had gone to the prom dressed as Rita Hayworth too:)
ReplyDeleteAre schools loosening up about how the girls and boys dress for the prom now? ... ?? At last?
Cathy, I think so. The grief and expense of litigation which will probably not go their way in the final ruling begins to look like a rather heavy price to pay to uphold the "long-held tradition".
ReplyDeleteThe prom strikes me as quite a sadistic tradition anyway. As far as I can tell, enforced dancing for adolescents always has been a form of social torture.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest grandson, along with a good many of his friends, chose not to attend the prom. My next-to-oldest grandson does not attend many of the school dances, because he says they're not fun.
ReplyDelete