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.
