Student barred from attending prom

According to an article by the Chicago Sun Times, a cross-dressing, gay student was barred from attending his senior prom in Gary, Indiana, due to what the system is calling “dress codes.”

Kevin Logan has spent the entire year wearing female clothing to school and even had problems with the principal who denied him entry into the prom at the beginning of the year. Sometime before prom, Logan was told female clothing on men would not be allowed, but undeterred, Logan went anyway.

The Courts have ruled time and time again that students do not give up their constitutional rights, including freedom of expression, when entering a school. Except in cases where such expression might interrupt learning and academics, schools cannot restrict a student’s freedom of expression, including the clothes one might wear. At prom, according to the article, freedom of expression and the dress codes that go along with them are even more lax because unlike a regular school day, the prom is not a scholastic activity and no interruption of academics can occur there.

According to the article:

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.

That ban, according to Indiana Civil Liberties Union legal director Ken Falk, violates the First Amendment. The Logan family is mulling both a complaint with the ICLU and possible litigation.

“When I tried to walk in, she asked me where am I going. She said, ‘You’re not walking in here today,’ ” Logan, 18, said. “Ms. Rouse said I wasn’t allowed to have on a dress,” he said Tuesday as he and his mother, Donnetta Logan, were at West Side to seek a ticket refund.

“I already had approval to go to the prom. I do have constitutional rights. I asked her ‘Why are you doing this to me? This is my prom. This is like the most important night of my life,’ ” Logan said.

Logan said while he wasn’t allowed in and left after police were called, his friends did come out to the parking lot to pose for pictures with him. “I was hurt. She took something from me I can’t get back. I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” the senior said.

In 1999, Falk helped an Indianapolis male teen win a court battle to wear a dress to prom. “All students have First Amendment rights of freedom of expression. Those rights can be overcome for the legitimate needs of the school. For example, you can’t protest. That runs the risk of disrupting instruction,” Falk said. “But the court found at a prom, those risks are lessened. It’s not a scholastic activity.”

Logan said he had spent years defining and exploring his sexuality. This year, he took a major step toward self-identity by dressing as a female every day this school year.

“I had a problem with her (Principal Rouse) the first day of school because I had a purse. A week before prom she told me female clothing would not be allowed,” Logan said.

Rouse directed questions to central administration. She refused to sit down for a talk with Donnetta and Kevin Logan, but told a counselor to make sure a receipt was given for the refund.

The article also includes a statement issued by the school district…. look at this madness (emphasis added):

Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said the decision to exclude Logan was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”

Rowan said it is school policy that males can’t wear dresses. “The administration would have erred in judgment if it had allowed the male student the privilege of dressing as a female,” he said in a statement.

Oh… and one more thing: Students at the prom say that a girl was allowed to wear a tux that night. This principal and school district are in some deep doo-doo now.

Posted in Anti-LGBT, High School, LGBT, LGBT Youth, Politics, Sexuality |