In an attempt to protect their children from the horrors of watching two teenage girls dancing with one wearing a tuxedo, a Mississippi high school’s administration canceled the senior prom.

That seems like a perfectly reasonable response to the terrifying prospect of a student bringing the date of her choice while wearing an outfit she felt comfortable in.

Instead of releasing a statement saying the truth – that it had canceled the prom because of its distaste for gay people – the school board blamed the cancellation on “the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.”

This makes very little sense as a prom usually involves eating mediocre chicken, dancing and dressing up – not really important teaching moments.

Proms do, I suppose, teach teenage girls how to buy dresses they will likely lament when looking back (pink gowns almost never seem like a good choice upon reflection).

I suppose there’s also the important lesson in matching a corsage to your date’s dress and the even more important one in not stabbing her or groping her inappropriately while affixing it to said gown.

Proms also offer other important educational opportunities like learning how to pick a cheesy theme song and solving the mathematical problem of exactly how many people fit in a limo.

Some of the more forward-thinking students might get an opportunity to “study” some anatomy later in the evening, but, in general, “the educational process” has no major role at the prom.

In making this homophobic decision, the school board not only exposed its own prejudices, it placed on of it students in danger.

As if growing up gay in a “conservative” southern town was not difficult enough, Constance McMillen – the student at the center of this controversy – now must face classmates who blame her for the loss of their prom.

“Thanks for ruining my senior year,” McMillen told newspaper reporters was amongst the greetings she received after returning to school.

One would hope that her classmates would turn their anger against their prejudiced school board, but high school students are not generally known for their enlightenment.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on McMillen’s behalf seeking to force the school to hold the dance while allowing the 18-year-old to wear a tuxedo and bring a same-sex date.

In addition, area businesspeople, including a nearby hotel owner, responded with offers of money, free venues and other aid to help students stage an unofficial prom.

Those offers show that while prejudice and ignorance run deep, so to do generosity, compassion and acceptance.

The school board should never have put one of its students in this position, even if the members find the prospect of a tuxedo-clad girl squiring another girl to a dance repugnant.

Grownups – educators especially – should be big enough to set their personal prejudices aside and realize that you must not discriminate against one student no matter how much you dislike her choices.

Canceling the prom because a student wants to express her sexuality by bringing a same-sex date is exactly the same a canceling it because a student wanted a vegan meal or because one has a peanut allergy.

Senior proms are for having fun with your class, sharing a few final moments together and creating a lasting memory of people with whom you have spent the last 13 years of school.

The prom should not be an opportunity for some misguided grownups to push their political agenda at the expense of the kids they should be protecting.

McMillen didn’t want to be at the center of a national controversy, and she most certainly did not want to earn the ill will of her classmates. She simply wanted to go to a dance dressed as she pleased with the person of her choosing. It’s hard to imagine that a school board would want to stand in the way of that.

Daniel B. Kline’s work appears in more than 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/dankline.