Last week, Claudetteia, 17, was told by Carroll High School Principal Taylor that she would not be allowed to attend her prom in Monroe, Louisiana, if she wore a tuxedo.
Seriously, who cares if a teenage girl wants to wear a tux. Didn't Diane Keaton win an Oscar in 1977 for Annie Hall wearing men's suits? And didn't that start a huge fashion trend?
Geraldine Jackson, Claudetteia’s mother, met with Principal Taylor to discuss this further and was reportedly told that “girls wear dresses and boys wear tuxes, and that’s the way it is.”
Principal Taylor also reportedly claimed that approximately half of the faculty scheduled to work at the prom would refuse to chaperone if Claudetteia were permitted to wear a tuxedo.
Claudetteia and several of her friends originally planned on attending the prom together, but, because of the school’s refusal to allow Claudetteia to wear a tuxedo, have opted not go to the prom unless the school changes its discriminatory policy.
The negative response against Principal Taylor’s decision was swift. Two members of the Monroe County Board of Education, which oversees Carroll High School, vowed to ensure that Claudetteia would be allowed to wear a tuxedo to her prom.
Yesterday, Principal Patrick Taylor and Monroe City School Board President Bishop Rodney McFarland Sr. contacted Claudetteia Love, who is being represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), to inform her that she will be allowed to wear a tuxedo to her senior prom on April 24.
“We are pleased to hear that Principal Taylor and the Monroe City School Board corrected this wrong before any serious harm was done. Forbidding girls from wearing a tuxedo to the prom would have served no purpose other than to reinforce the worst sorts of harmful stereotypes and censor a core part of Claudetteia’s identity,” said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. “The school is doing the right thing by supporting its students and teaching them the value of respect and acceptance of one another’s differences.”
(via press release)
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