The recession is costing each state education system terrible sacrifice. Schools are being closed or combined with other campuses, and program cutbacks put teachers in the unemployment line instead of teaching choir, auto shop, or culinary arts, due to budget issues.
However, a Mississippi school district canceled prom this spring, and budget cuts had nothing to do with it. The Huffington Post report of March 10, 2010, by Sheila Byrd of Associated Press (AP), reported that the Itawmba School District Board made the announcement that same day. By the next day, the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) press release of March 11, 2010, the ACLU's Mississippi branch filed a lawsuit against Itawamba School District on the student's behalf. The district action was their reaction to one student's request for permission to attend the prom with her female date and to wear a tuxedo.
Another Mississippi School Prom Case
This announcement is reminiscent of Morgan Freeman’s gift to the Charleston, Mississippi school district he attended as a child. The Huffington Press journalist, David Germain, reported in his article, "Morgan Freeman Pays for Integrated Prom" on January 19, 2009, that Freeman had first made the offer in 1997 to pay for a school-wide prom including all students, black and white. However, 12 years after Mr. Freeman's original offer, the school district finally allowed him to provide an all-student, integrated prom. The school's tradition prior to 2009, was to rely on two private, black only and white only segregated proms, according to Germain's article.
Labels, Lawsuits and Life
To desegregate, according to WordNet's Princeton definition, is to integrate or mix together. The U.S. Supreme Court declared school desegregation in the 1954 ruling on the famous “Brown vs. Board of Education" case. However, the state of Mississippi did not allow racially or ethnically different students to mix together in schools until 1970, sixteen years after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling, according to the Civil Rights Timeline, created by the Mississippi Humanities Council at Southern Mississippi University.
Desegregation in Mississippi classrooms took sixteen years to end, but school prom desegregation appears to remain a hot topic, with Charleston, Mississippi's twelve year hesitation in accepting Mr. Freeman's offer until '09. Now that issue is further blurred by the Itawamba, Mississippi school district canceling prom because a lesbian student's request to attend prom with her girlfriend and to wear a tuxedo. While students' equal right to education was on the line in 1954, in the 2000's discrimination in schools hasn't ended for school sanctioned social events.
According to the ACLU press release of March 11, 2010, the organization is filing a lawsuit against Itawamba County, Mississippi public school district, requesting a federal court order to demand the district retract its decision to cancel the April 2, 2010 prom, based on the school's banning of same-sex prom dates. The ACLU indicated that her choice in wearing a tuxedo was also at issue with the school, and included a request to allow the girl to wear pants, in keeping with her right of expression.
Sheila Byrd reported in her AP March 12, 2010 release, in The Washington Post and The Hunnington Press, that although the student named in ACLU's suit feared retaliation from other students angry about the cancellation, Constance McMillan, returned to school only a day after the ACLU announcement. The school district is asking that private individuals or groups hold a prom, according to Sheila Byrd's AP report.
The Bottom Line
With the ACLU involved, this school rule is now a civil rights issue and may set a precedent for other violations of gay and lesbian rights across the United States. Interestingly, this event occurred only a week after the March 3, 2010 historic event expanding gay rights. K. Alexander and A. Marimow reported in The Washington Post on March 3, 2010 that Washington D. C. began issuing its first legal marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples. It is especially noteworthy that Washington, D.C., like Mississippi, is located below the Mason-Dixon Line.
March 28, 2010 Updates:
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson ruled Constance McMillan's first amendment rights were violated. However he did not require Mississippi Itawamba County School District to provide a prom. He noted that parents had already taken charge in provided a private, all-student prom, as reported in Ms. Magazine on Wednesday, 03/24/2010.
A fan club supporting Constance McMillan's cause has been created with already about 420,000 members on FaceBook.
Lynn Pritchett - Lynn lives in Arizona with her husband and is caretaker for a few pets left behind by their two grown daughters.
