Still ... and now including the learning disabled

[5829]

people don't understand. I doubt they are the only ones, but probably the only ones with courage to speak up.
School officials are willing to spoil it for the whole school rather then let them be part of the prom.

44,200 Comments

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date

Lesbian teen in prom flap sues, returns to school
By SHELIA BYRD, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 10, 2010

JACKSON, Miss. – Constance McMillen didn't believe her Mississippi school district would really call off her senior prom rather than allow her to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. On Thursday, a day after the Itawamba County school board did just that, the 18-year-old lesbian high school senior reluctantly returned to campus to some unfriendly looks, she said.

"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year.'" McMillen said.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn't host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it violated students' rights. And the ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford to force the school district to sponsor the prom and allow McMillen to bring whom she chooses and wear what she wants.

District officials didn't returned numerous calls left by The Associated Press seeking comment on Thursday.

McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did.

"A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom" to cancel it, she said. "I'm just trying to get done what I originally wanted done. Now, we're having to fight just to have a prom."

McMillen said she didn't want to go back to Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton the morning after the decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates, teachers and school officials.

"My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."

A school board statement said it wouldn't host the event in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events" but never mentioned McMillen or her girlfriend, who also is a student at the school.

Same-sex prom dates and cross-dressing are new issues for many high schools around the country, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.

"A lot of schools actually react rather than do the research and find out what the rights of these students are," said Presgraves, who was preparing to facilitate a discussion about anti-gay bullying at a National Association of Secondary School Principals meeting.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said a bill he's introduced in Congress would protect students such as McMillen. Polis said the measure would make it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian school students. He said his bill is modeled after similar laws in at least 10 states.

"This situation with the prom is a perfect example of why we need to protect students from discrimination. In this case it's a prom. It other cases, it's getting beaten up or killed," Polis said.

Polis said he was "dismayed" by the school board's action.

"They ruined the prom, not only for this young woman, but for all of the straight kids at the school," he said.

The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held. McMillen said if that happens, she's sure she'll be excluded.

"It's a small town in Mississippi, and it's run by an older generation with money. Most of them are more conservative and they don't agree with it," she said.

Fulton Mayor Paul Walker said he supports the school district's decision and knew of no private efforts to host the prom.

"I think the community as a whole is probably in support of the school district," Walker said of the town of about 4,000.

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."

Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It's near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.

A couple of students had different reactions to the decision.

Anna Watson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, was looking forward to the prom, especially since the town's only hotspot is the bowling alley, she said.

"I am a little bummed out about it. I guess it's a decision that had to be made. Either way someone was going to get disappointed — either Constance was or we were," Watson said. "I don't agree with homosexuality, but I can't change what another person thinks or does."

McKenzie Chaney, 16, said she wasn't planning to attend the prom, but "it's kind of ridiculous that they can't let her wear the tuxedo and it all be over with."

Presgraves said his organization hears about school districts that prohibit same-sex prom dates and gay-straight alliance clubs at schools. He said those kind of policies are detrimental to gay students.

"It sends a message that these students shouldn't be treated the same," Presgraves said.

[AYHJA]

Sad to say, my state is notorious for backwards ass practices and what not...Segregated schools, proms...Still happening...Damn shame...

[5829]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date

Lesbian, girlfriend OK for private Miss. prom
2 hrs 31 mins ago

JACKSON, Miss. – An attorney says a lesbian student who sued a Mississippi school over its policy banning same-sex prom dates can bring her girlfriend to a privately sponsored dance.

Itawamba County school board attorney Michele Floyd said Tuesday that 18-year-old Constance McMillen can escort her girlfriend to the dance Friday at the Fulton Country Club.

The private prom replaces one the school district canceled rather than let McMillen wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend, who is also a student at Itawamba Agricultural High School.

A federal judge ruled last week that the district's actions violated McMillen's constitutional rights, but he didn't reinstate the school prom.

He said he would hold a trial on the matter later.

[shining2001uk]

I can understand how this kind of discrimination goes on behind closed doors without people knowing. But its amazing that a district council and a mayor can officially advocate it and not be accountable.

[5829]

http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/m ... d_students

Mississippi High School Says No to Gay and Learning Disabled Students


by Michael A. Jones April 06, 2010 08:41 AM (PT) Topics: LGBT Youth

Constance McMillenThe details coming out of Fulton, Mississippi are enough to turn anyone's stomach a little sour. There was 18-year-old lesbian student Constance McMillen, who sued for the right to take her girlfriend to prom. Her school, Itawamba Agricultural High School, refused to budge, saying that gay students would make others feel uncomfortable. A judge ruled that McMillen had a right to attend the prom with her peers, but by that point, it was almost too late. The school had canceled the official prom.

An alternative prom was scheduled on April 2, with Constance invited to attend. It was supposed to be an event for the entire school, yet when Constance got there, only seven other students were there. In what essentially amounts to a prank more "meaner" than "Mean Girls," Constance's classmates, in tandem with their parents and allegedly some school officials, tricked Constance, as well as several students with learning disabilities, into attending a sham prom, while they all got together at an alternative location to celebrate the end of their high school year.

Remember that scene in "Carrie," where the high school girl gets a bucket of pig's blood dumped on her during a prom prank? You can now officially replace that image with the folks at Itawamba Agricultural High when it comes to mean and sinister prom pranks.

Scores of folks have been covering this since it emerged that the prom Constance attended was a sham. Some have even drawn comparisons to an incident that happened 45 years ago, where an African American student in Birmingham, Carolyn Tasmiya King-Miller, was duped into attending a fake prom because her classmates didn't like the fact that she was a person of color. The comparisons seem to fit.

Now, in the wake of widespread criticism, students at the school are trying to justify their prom prank. As one student who commented at firedoglake tried to explain it, "We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy (sic). What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the 'boondocks' not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco."

Yes, blame Constance. How dare she ask the school months in advance if she can bring her girlfriend that she cares about to prom. What in the world was she thinking?

The real fiasco here is the culture that allows the student above to write that comment without feeling even a tinge of remorse. "It's Constance's fault for being gay," the student might as well have written. And let's be clear here: the homophobia at the root of this student's statement is pervasive at Itawamba Agricultural High School. As Dan Savage pointed out a few weeks ago, Itawamba Agricultural High had a history before Constance McMillen of discriminating against LGBT students, including expelling a transgender student.

Years ago I had a religious professor that told us, "Where you stand in this world determines what you see." And when you stand in a community where school administrators label LGBT people as gross or a group to disenfranchise, it's no wonder that students at the school don't think they've done anything wrong.

And it doesn't end there. Lost in the coverage of this event, and what Pam Spaulding points out so well on her blog, is that it wasn't just Constance McMillen who was the brunt of this prom joke. It was also a group of learning disabled students, who were told to go to the sham prom.

"To think that Fulton not only displayed rank homophobia, it raised the bar of evil by sending learning-disabled students to the fake prom, clearly labeling them 'others,'" Spaulding writes. "I challenge any of these 'Christians' in Fulton to cite where in the bible Jesus teaches that the physically or mentally challenged deserve to be outcasts."

They'll be looking in the Bible for a long time for that one, as well as for passages that suggest it's "Christian" to discriminate against LGBT people. (Here's a word to the wise: Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. But he did say a whole hell of a lot about loving your neighbor, and even loving your enemies).

Firedoglake called Itawamba Agricultural High School the meanest school in America yesterday. In the wake of this incident, it's really hard not to agree.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

[5829]

http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/w ... y_students


When School Districts Lie to Trick Their Gay Students
by Michael A. Jones April 05, 2010 10:39 AM (PT) Topics: LGBT History, LGBT Youth

Constance McMillenConstance McMillen is the 18-year-old student who went to court to protest her school's decision to cancel prom, rather than let Constance show up with her girlfriend. And like most judges with even a dollop of common sense, the judge in the case found that Constance's high school — Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi — violated Constance's rights by nixing prom to punish gay students.

But the evil deeds of this school and this school district are far from over. As firedoglake describes it, Itawamba Agricultural High School might just be the meanest high school in the entire country. Why?

Well, after the prom was canceled, an alternative private prom was arranged. Constance and her girlfriend, as well as the entire eligible student body of Itawamba Agricultural High, were invited to attend. And last Friday when the prom took place, a whopping seven people showed up, despite a student population of hundreds. What gives?

Turns out that the whole she-bang might have been a ruse. While Constance, her girlfriend and seven students showed up for this alternative prom, another secret prom was allegedly being held nearby for everyone else. And rumors are flying that the school and school district — which were so quick to trample on Constance's equal rights — played a major hand in arranging for this exclusive, members only prom.

If that's all true, then you can count Itawamba Agricultural High School as the perfect role model for students — the perfect role model to show students that lying, manipulation, discrimination, and toying with the emotions of students will get you far in this world.

The Mayor of Fulton, Mississippi told the Clarion Ledger on April 1 that he'd like to see the controversy over the gay prom end soon. Guess that was an April Fool's comment, given the alleged shady tactics the school district used in tricking Constance and eight other folks into attending a sham prom.

"We would kind of like to see this end as soon as possible," Mayor Paul Walker said. "We've been hammered pretty good." (No, not that Paul Walker. If it was, you can rest assured Fulton's population would be far more than 4,000!)

No offense to the Mayor, but if you want a controversy to end, you should get on your school board administrators and tell them to stop messing with the lives of LGBT students. There's a reason, after all, that you've been hammered pretty good, and it has nothing to do with the actions of Constance McMillen, and everything to do with how school board administrators sacrificed their student body in the name of "family values." Some family values they're showing.

Here's a message for Constance, her girlfriend, and the seven other students that showed up to what they thought was an alternative prom last week: by standing up for your convictions and each other, you've shown an entire country that no matter how young you are, you're never too young to stand up against prejudice and inequality. While your school district, some of your classmates, and their parents trick you, rest assured that the nearly half a million people who support you on Facebook, not to mention the thousands of people who have sent emails to your school district, have got your back.

Meanest school district in America? You could probably say that. But I'd rather label it the saddest school district in America, if these allegations prove true. They blew an opportunity to unite students rather than divide them. And they'll come out of all of this with a national reputation somewhere between salmonella and e coli.

Photo credit: Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to the Prom
Vcygcorilljgafh-30x30-cropped

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

[5829]

http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2010/04/0 ... n-student/

(comment from one of the seniors left on comment board for this article) - full article at link above

begleg10 | Monday April 5, 2010 03:19 pm 8

**Open Minded Readers Only**
I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.
The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.
Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.


Some more links

http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2010/04/0 ... ate-proms/

http://gayrights.change.org/petitions/v ... rom_guests

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Let-Const ... 7686784817
(facebook page - over 428,000 fans)

http://newsericks.com/fake-prom,/

http://gawker.com/5509819/did-a-mississ ... d-her-date

[shining2001uk]

Will this madness never end? Is this not making headline news in the States? or is it being swept under the carpet?