Free Republic

The Community Renewal Society presentsHere’s to You CATALYST’s 10th Anniversary Prom Save the date! To order tickets, call our promline: (312) 427-4830, ext. 1-300.Se Habla Espanol  Saturday, February 12, 2000 Grand Ballroom, Navy Pier  Honorary Committee Joanne Alter, FounderWorking In The SchoolsArnita Boswell, Founder, Board MemberNational Hook Up of Black WomenJulie Chavez, Managing DirectorBank of America IllinoisRonald Gidwitz, PartnerGCG PartnersSandra Guthman, PresidentPolk Bros. FoundationLeon Jackson, PresidentMulti-Fac CorporationR. Eden Martin, PresidentCivic Committee, Commercial Club of ChicagoRichard Morrow, Retired Chairman and CEOAmoco CorporationAdele Simmons, Vice PresidentChicago Metropolis 2020Rev. Kenneth W. Smith, Senior FellowChicago Community TrustChristina Tchen, PartnerSkadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &...

Lisa Pickin arrived in style at her 2008 high-school prom in this middle-class town an hour east of London. The stretch Jeep limo, lilac ball gown and accessories cost her parents about £550, or $1,080. Her upswept blond curls took her aunt two hours to fashion. Britain, the land of school uniforms, rigorous exams and ivy-covered school halls, is embracing an American invasion: the high-school prom. British teenagers say they've seen the events in movies like "American Pie" and television shows such as "The O.C.," and they want the chance to dress up and rent limousines themselves. That means a...

Should the high school prom be renamed the high school porno? They call it "grinding" or "freak dancing" when students grind their pelvises into each other to the beat of sexually explicit music, sometimes in chains of three or four or more. This kind of dancing is so commonplace with high-school students that some parents and cultural writers are suggesting all attempts at school dancing decorum should be abandoned. In The Washington Post, reporter Laura Sessions Stepp recently tried to talk herself and her readership into finding a different war to fight, since dancing regulations only spur a debate with...

Man won’t be allowed to be prom queen at ParkBY PAUL SLOTH Journal Times Friday, May 2, 2008 11:55 PM CDT Uriel Gomez poses Thursday outside of Park High School. Gomez, a senior, is openly gay, and was on the ballot for both prom queen and prom king. On Friday, school officials said his name will not be allowed on the girls’ side of the ballot. Photo by Mark Hertzberg of The Journal Times RACINE — A Park High School student who thought he might have a shot at being prom queen could still get crowned king. School officials have...

School officials have informed Pope that since Francisco Velasco, is 21, he is too old to attend the function Saturday night. Principal Robert McBride says the main reason is that 21 is the legal age for alcohol consumption. Velasco, who is stationed at Fort Lee, Va. received permission from his superiors to fly to Chicago for the weekend just for the dance, but since he can't attend, Pope has decided to skip the function.

A school board in Arizona has decided that condoms are among the items that should be given to students attending this year's prom. The school board in the Bisbee District voted 4-1 at a recent meeting to include the condoms in a "prom bag" that will be given to prom-goers this year. A spokeswoman in the office of Supt. Paul McDonald confirmed the condoms would be handed out to the event celebrants, along with other items such as picture frames, balloons and candy. "The governing board approved [this]," she told WND. "They are to have what they call prom bags,...

Some Union teens choose LDS prom JOE MARUSAK Imagine a high school prom where dates are optional, the dress code is modest and the lyrics are clean. Imagine one that's free. Students from Union, Mecklenburg and surrounding counties have enjoyed such annual gatherings since 2003 through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS proms, as the students and parents call them, are for ages 16-18 only and are held at a different LDS church throughout the region each year. This year's is March 15 at the LDS building on Lazy Lane in Mooresville. The proms draw up...

PONTIAC, Ill., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A man caught breaking into a Rent-A-Center store in Pontiac, Ill., to steal big screen TVs said he turned to crime to pay for his daughter's prom. Manual Gaines was spotted after police officers on patrol heard breaking glass outside the business, The Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph reported Friday. Officers chased a stolen van onto Interstate 55 and found more than $10,000 worth of plasma screen televisions inside the abandoned vehicle. Gaines, 36, was arrested in a field nearby where he was trying to hide.

Marin Teen Turns Into Prom-Dressed Crime Fighter POSTED: 10:35 am PDT April 27, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO -- Superman might have his cape, but Marin Academy sophomore Erin Schrode has a prom dress, tiara and combat boots. San Francisco police were crediting Schrode with chasing down two thieves while wearing her prom dress, a tiara and combat boots after they allegedly stole a purse and laptop from her friends at a Union Square rally earlier this week. Schrode and her friends were part of "Project Prom" -- a teen rally for safe cosmetics that was being staged in the middle of...

Rosanne Strott says she was not trying to make a political statement. She just wanted to invite a close friend to Friday night's prom at Bishop Feehan High School. The problem was, that friend was a woman. Catholic Diocese officials barred the same-sex couple from attending the prom together.

As they stepped out of cars and limousines and made last-minute adjustments to their outfits, most Fresno High School students seemed reluctant to talk about the reason their prom had become national news. They were all well-dressed, they all smiled -- but most politely said "no thank you" when asked about a classmate nominated for prom queen who ran for prom king instead

The theme of "Bittersweet Memories" given to a prom for Higgins High School seniors turned out oddly appropriate, thanks to a flap about whether dresses were too revealing. Many West Bank families were fuming Saturday after a teacher refused to allow dozens of girls into the prom Friday night because of alleged violations of the Jefferson Parish Schools dress code, most of them related to excessive display of cleavage. "I was embarrassed," said Miranda Melerine (right), 17, a senior at the Marrero high school, who was among those barred by teacher Judy Gardner, an advisor to senior activities. "We can't...

(AP) PITTSBURGH The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday against a Beaver County school district for suspending a student who mentioned the Columbine shooting after allegedly being teased and referred to as "Osama bin Laden." The lawsuit against the New Brighton Area School District was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Cory Johnson, 18, who graduated last spring. Johnson missed his senior prom and was suspended for 10 days from New Brighton Area High School for telling another student in April, "If I were Osama, I would already have pulled a Columbine." ACLU attorneys contend Johnson was...

What were they thinking? That must have been the reaction of school officials, when they learned that seniors in the H-B Woodlawn Program planned to distribute liquor-style flasks to those attending the school's annual informal prom. Whatever the students were thinking, what school officials were thinking, it turns out, could be summed up in three words: “No you don't.” “Students didn't make the right decision, so we had to step in,” Woodlawn principal Frank Haltiwanger told the Sun Gazette. “It was a very inappropriate prom gift, and an action taken by a small group of students without the knowledge, or...

Cross-dressing teen barred from senior prom http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/prom24.html May 24, 2006 FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS GARY, Ind. -- The prom ticket was in hand: $85. The fuschia, slinky prom dress and strappy heels were ready. The whole week of giddy anticipation and pampering -- more than $200 worth of a manicure, pedicure and hair set -- was set to culminate with the grand walk into the glam ball. But when Kevin Logan, a transgender and gay student at Gary’s West Side High School, arrived last Friday at Avalon Manor in Hobart for his prom, he was banned by Principal Diane Rouse....

DMV agents look inside; Belman driver refuses to allow access, citing clients' privacy. Date published: 5/22/2006 Department of Motor Vehicles staff brought a search tactic reportedly used at Northern Virginian proms a little farther south Saturday night. As limousines pulled up to Colonial Forge High School's junior-senior prom, DMV agents asked to search the vehicles. Most drivers agreed to the searches, except for one. Prom-goers began arriving at the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center around 8 p.m. Once limousine drivers dropped off passengers, DMV enforcement agents asked to see chauffeur licenses and to search vehicles for alcohol and drugs. Most...

My son was on the phone for hours last week, negotiating, sometimes even arguing, with his friends. The prom was coming up and his gang was trying to figure out where to go post-party, whether they should rent a limo, or buy corsages for their girlfriends. (My son's girlfriend does not want a corsage: The pin will leave marks on her dress, she says. Good for her. Less money for me.) The whole thing has become ridiculously expensive; when my daughter graduated from high school four years ago, we went from store to store gown shopping and it was a...

Educator Asks To Take Student To Prom: PASADENA, Texas -- A city of South Houston teacher was placed on administrative leave, accused of having an improper relationship with a student, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday. Officials at South Houston High School said they began asking questions after the English teacher, Sean Eckman, 29, asked his principal if he could take a 17-year-old student to prom. "He asked for permission to take her to the prom. He said he was a family friend and that the parents had agreed that it would be OK," said Kirk Lewis, the Pasadena Independent School...

It was a typical scene on prom night. A boy, stiffly dressed in eveningwear, waits it out in the living room. His date has yet to make an appearance, but the frantic rushing in and out of a mother, an aunt, a female cousin, announce that progress is being made. The front door stands open, allowing neighbors, high school friends, little brothers, to come, go, comment, encourage, heckle, observe and mingle within the communal scene that is senior prom night. However, Clinton High School senior Krystle Gutman and her boyfriend, Clinton High junior T.J. Daugherty, delight in being different....

My 17-year old daughter is going to her first prom tonight. The date seems to be a decent enough kid, although he's a little too much into love of his car. I'm looking for suggestions on a good "safety and respect" speech to be delivered to this young man. I've thought of taking out and sharpening my Dad's Korean war souvenir bayonet in front of him (just to focus his attention), but that may be too dramatic.Suggestions?

A Cape Cod teen is all dressed up with no place to go after her high school snooped into her boyfriend’s past and banned him from the prom after learning he’d been convicted of pot possession. “It’s like a smack in the face,” said 18-year-old Erica Eckert, one of two seniors whose non-student boyfriends were too bad for the big dance. “I’m honestly not sure what I want to do,” she said in a tearful interview last night. Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School banned Eckert’s 19-year-old boyfriend from Saturday’s soiree after a criminal background check turned up a past marijuana possession...

It’s Prom season, when many parents worry about drinking and driving. But one school is taking a proactive approach to keep its students safe. Elkhart Central High School recently started giving random alcohol breath tests to prom-goers. Roughly, 10-20% of the students will be given the tests, for prom next week, as they drive up to the event. The school says in two years that they have done it, no students have tested positive. “I feel that kids need to be aware that this is going on, so that there’s no drunk driving on prom night,” senior Sarah Fischer told...

CARRIERE - U.S. Marines can travel "from the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli," but not to the senior prom at Pearl River Central High School. The school's age policy prohibits a high school senior from taking her 21-year-old boyfriend to the prom. Christopher Raffo and Leah Lott, students at different schools, began dating about four years ago, when both were lifeguards at Hide-A-Way Lake. He was a senior and she was a freshman, and since then, they have dated off and on. Now Lott is a senior at Pearl River Central and Raffo is a Marine headed...

High school is full of difficult choices, and some students Friday were trying to pick from an improbable trinity: reading, writhing or religion. And amid the unfortunate confluence of class work, the prom and Good Friday, something had to give. "There was, like, no one coming to school today," Sequoyah High senior Christa Wilkie said Friday. "[On Thursday] in lit class they asked who was going to be here Friday and no one raised their hands." Two schools held their proms on Good Friday, and at least eight others across metro Atlanta, from Coweta to Cobb, are throwing the dance...

Mayra Hernandez and Lesly Hernandez planned to look pretty for the Ennis High School senior prom on Saturday night. But they won't be going because they joined a protest. "We all bought dresses, accessories, and we rented a limo and all that," Mayra said. "Now all that money is just going to waste." Thousands of North Texas students skipped classes this week to demonstrate against the immigration bill now being considered by the U.S. Congress. About 130 Ennis ISD students—from sixth graders to seniors—joined in Thursday, despite a school district warning that any student participating would be suspended until Monday,...

Several Ennis High School seniors have been barred from their school prom tonight for protesting Thursday against proposed federal immigration legislation. School officials suspended 120 to 130 students from classes Friday and barred them from school events this weekend, including sporting events and the prom. The students attend Ennis High School, Ennis Junior High and the Sixth Grade Center. "We got suspended, and we're not allowed to go to prom for standing up for something that we believe is right," said senior Araceli Garcia, 18.

Laura Murphy planned on attending her prom at Villa Maria Academy. She paid the $100 deposit, scheduled a limousine rental and asked her date. She ran into a snag, however, and it has nothing to do with what shoes to wear. Administrators of the private, all-girls Catholic high school school don't like Murphy's choice of companion, and they've told her to find someone else or come alone. Murphy, a senior who is openly lesbian, wants to bring her girlfriend of six months, Lindsey Shelton, and believes school administrators are discriminating against them. "They said, "We want it to be traditional....

GLAM GAL: "You only do prom once, and I've been planning this for over a year," says Brooklyn 17-year-old Jenna Cossuto. Photo: Graham Morrison Jenna Cossuto spent $2,400 on her custom-made dress. She'll rent a 22-seat stretch Hummer to transport her closest friends to privately booked Gotham Hall. And then it's off to the swanky South Street Seaport at Bridgewater and afterward, a party in Crobar's VIP section before a long weekend in a Hamptons beach house. But this once-in-a-lifetime weekend isn't for Cossuto's wedding. It's for this 17-year-old's senior prom. She's part of a growing generation of teens...

At prim prom, no freaking allowed CONTRA COSTA: Local Mormon church members offer alternative for high school students who disdain dirty dancing By Linda Davis CONTRA COSTA TIMES The dresses will be at least below the knee. The boys will use proper etiquette. The music will have no swear words or sexual innuendo, and the dancing will strictly be vertical. After all the local hubbub over freak dancing at school dances in the past few months, Mormon church members were inspired to create an "alternative prom" for students. No freak dancing will be allowed -- period. "We wanted to do...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A former high school student barred from her prom because she wore a dress styled as a Confederate battle flag has reached a settlement with the school district, her attorney said. Jacqueline Duty filed a lawsuit after Greenup County school officials called the dress too controversial and kept her out of Russell High School's May 1, 2004 prom. Duty claimed the district violated her First Amendment right to free speech and to celebrate her heritage. School officials notified the U.S. District Court last week about the settlement. Duty's attorney, Earl-Ray Neal, confirmed a settlement had been...

If only we had a photo of Eric Govan's face at the moment it happened. Govan, as you may have heard, is the Golden State Warriors' PR assistant who inadvertently sent a wildly inappropriate e-mail called "ghetto prom" to the news media. Not just the local news media, but ESPN, CBS, Sports Illustrated and other publications. Oops. It was the ultimate Internet nightmare, and Govan had to have known it instantly. There must have been a second, perhaps with his finger still on the "send'' key, when he thought, "Oh my God, I believe my career has just spontaneously burst...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The public relations manager for the Golden State Warriors was fired Wednesday for inadvertently sending out a racially insensitive e-mail titled "Ghetto Prom" to the team's entire media distribution list. Eric Govan, the No. 3 person on the Warriors' media relations staff, sent the e-mail featuring 17 photos, many depicting scantily clad black people in formal attire and commentary on the outfits. The e-mail went to dozens of newspaper reporters, columnists and sports editors as well as television and radio stations. "It came to my attention moments ago that one of our employees had inadvertently sent...

FREMONT, Calif., June 7 — The trappings of a typical high school prom were all there: the strobe lights, the garlands, the crepe pineapple centerpieces and even a tiara for the queen. In fact, Fatima Haque's prom tonight had practically everything one might expect on one of a teenage girl's most important nights. Except boys. Ms. Haque and her friends may have helped initiate a new American ritual: the all-girl Muslim prom. It is a spirited response to religious and cultural beliefs that forbid dating, dancing with or touching boys or appearing without a hijab, the Islamic head scarf. While...

Prom night, that all-American rite of passage that fell out of favor during the anti-establishment 1960's and then made a comeback in the conservative tilt of the Reagan era, probably always inhabited terrain destined to become a battleground in the so-called culture wars. It is about social manners, class, gender roles; and to a more or less open degree, it is about sex. That may explain why recent decisions by two Roman Catholic high school principals on Long Island to cancel proms for the class of 2006 - both citing exasperation with what the educators described as a decadent "prom...

In the early 1970s at my unconventional private school in Brooklyn, a prom was unthinkable—a bourgeois and sexist ritual of the traditionalist '50s that our parents might have enjoyed but we, long-haired and liberated, disdained.

Brother Kenneth Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school: students putting down $10,000 to rent a party house in the Hamptons; pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo; fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise." Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School canceled the spring prom in a 2,000- word letter to parents. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is, rather, the flaunting of affluence,...

<p>Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School fired off a 2,000-word missive to parents at the start of the school year informing them that the Catholic school would no longer put on the spring prom.</p>

By the time the clock strikes midnight tonight, Nicole Williams, 18, will be $500 in the hole. Williams, the head of her high school's prom committee and candidate for prom queen, will have plunked down $180 on an original, handmade dress to wear to her prom, similar to one sported by R&B artist Alicia Keys. Then there's the stiletto heels, hair and nail appointments, prom tickets, a boutonniere for her boyfriend, a rental car and an after-prom meal out with friends. "It's my senior prom!" she explained. "It's the one night you can dress up and be beautiful and look...

HUNTINGTON — Four teenagers were shot to death early Sunday morning at a Huntington apartment. Police provided few details about the shootings, including whether the killer or killers were still at large. Huntington police identified the four victims as Dante Ward, 19, of Huntington; Edrick Clark, 18, of South Point, Ohio; Michael Dillon, 17, of Huntington; and Megan Poston, 16, of Barboursville. The four were shot at 1410 Charleston Ave., where Ward was living. Ward was a 2003 Huntington High School graduate. Dillon was a junior there, Poston was a junior at Cabell-Midland High School, and Clark attended South Point...

FREDERICK, Md. -- Two high school seniors who reportedly told a newspaper that they planned to drink alcohol after their prom said yesterday that they have been barred by the principal from attending the dance. Governor Thomas Johnson High School students Shawnda Lawson and Nicole Taylor, both 18, were quoted in the Frederick News-Post on May 5 discussing their plans to drink at parties after the prom this Saturday. "I like drinking," the newspaper quoted Miss Lawson as saying.

(CNSNews.com) - The high school prom isn't just a dance, it's a lesson in activism -- an opportunity for "courageous lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) students" to exercise their "right" to bring a same-sex date to the dance, a homosexual advocacy group said. To help students who "refuse to be excluded from the festivities," the advocacy group Lambda Legal has created a prom season guide entitled, "What LGBTQ Youth Need to Know." The eight questions and answers touch on the following topics: "You are allowed to bring your same-sex date to the prom," even though some schools may...

Two Mesquite teens were turned away from their senior prom last weekend, told by school officials that their dresses were too revealing. Natarra Allen and Brittni Brown say they are devastated because they had to miss the once-in-a-lifetime event. Mesquite school officials say they made it very clear what types of dresses are considered inappropriate. Horn High School even gave a PowerPoint presentation with examples

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — A high school senior who thought it would be funny to wear a dress to his prom was ticketed $249 for disorderly conduct, suspended for three days and banned from his last track meet. School district administrator Jim Gottinger said the discipline was for more than just the dress, noting Kerry Lofy (search), 18, was dancing in a sexually provocative manner at the prom, according to a police report. Lofy doubts that was the real reason he was disciplined Monday. "The whole night was that kind of dancing. They can't single me out and say, 'Oh...

School Suspends Boy for Wearing Prom Dress - Wednesday, May 11, 2005 (05-11) 19:56 PDT Lake Geneva, Wis. (AP) -- A high school senior who thought it would be funny to wear a dress to his prom was ticketed $249 for disorderly conduct, suspended for three days and banned from his last track meet.

Wednesday May 11, 2005 LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (AP) Kerry Lofy had no qualms about wearing a black, spaghetti-strap dress to his high school prom he thought it would be funny.Turns out, his school didn't.The 18-year-old senior was ticketed $249 for disorderly conduct, suspended from school for three days and told he must miss his last track meet.``Things got a little crazy,'' Lofy said.School district administrator Jim Gottinger said the discipline was for more than just the dress.According to a police report, a school police liaison officer saw Lofy dancing in a sexually provocative manner, including lying on another student on...

A nagging shower pelted the white decks of the Stone Mountain riverboat as waiters fussed over silver-plated buffet trays and temperamental photographers scouted for a dry, moonlit corner to record prom memories. Lots of proms are held on the riverboat Henry W. Grady, but never before had it hosted one like Saturday night's. The 114 students gathered for this particular prom, that traditional rite of high school passage, weren't from any local high school. They were home schoolers.

BOSTON -- Westwood High School in Boston is putting a mandatory rule into place this spring. Students will have to take a Breathalyzer-like test to prove that they are sober before they can enter this year's prom, according to WCVB-TV in Boston. School officials said they were forced to make a tough choice: cancel school dances or make it impossible for inebriated students to attend. "The intent is not to involve the police. The intent is to provide a safe environment for kids and send a strong message that we want no alcohol at school functions," said Westwood Public School's...

Yesterday's item noting this seasons hot prom dress piqued readers interest. One Wizbang reader went the extra mile and checked out the manufacturer's prom dress line and found that the Post got the story backward - literally.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 BRAVE NEW SCHOOLSUncivil war over girl's Confederate prom dressTeen says district violated her 1st Amendment right to free speech Posted: December 22, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Jacqueline Duty in her prom dress (Photo: Lexington Herald-Leader). A high-school senior who was barred from her prom because she showed up wearing a self-designed sequined dress patterned after the Confederate flag has filed suit, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated. Jacqueline Duty came to the Russell High School prom May 1 wearing the dress and was told to leave, according to a report in the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader....

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A teenager is suing her school district for barring her from the prom last spring because she was wearing a dress styled as a large Confederate battle flag. The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court claims the Greenup County district and administrators violated Jacqueline Duty's First Amendment right to free speech and her right to celebrate her heritage at predominantly white Russell High School's prom May 1. She also is suing for defamation, false imprisonment and assault. "Her only dance for her senior prom was on the sidewalk to a song playing on the radio,"...