What Happened at Constance McMillen's Prom

(Reposted from http://nmisscommentor.com/2010/04/04/what-happened-at-constance-mcmillans-prom/. EDIT: That site is back up, but I'll leave this here.)

What Happened At Constance McMillen’s Prom

Here’s the news, from a source I view as extremely reliable. The prom
the school district promised at the country club in Fulton was a ruse.
Only seven kids, Constance, and her date showed, and at the same time,
everyone else held a “real” prom at a secret location out in the
county.

This is all after the school district had represented to Judge Davidson
that Constance was invited to a parent-sponsored prom to be held at
Tupelo Furniture Market. The school represented that Constance was
invited in court filings, testimony, and representations by the school
district and its lawyers. In reality, Constance had not been invited,
but, based on the representations by the district and its counsel, Judge
Davidson denied Constance’s request for a preliminary injunction that
she could go to the prom.

The school reneged, or possibly didn’t ever intend to follow through on
its representations to the court. The parents didn’t want Constance at
the prom and didn’t want to be sued (as they told the Clarion Ledger),
and so on Tuesday announced the cancellation of the prom.

But what they’d done was secretly relocated it.

Shortly thereafter, the school’s attorney announced (on Wednesday) that
“the prom” was to be held at the Fulton Country Club on Friday. But
yet only seven kids showed up.

Meanwhile, there’s a rumor that school officials were directly involved
in setting up the “fake” prom.

I have several distinct reactions here. First, there’s a cowardice and
dishonesty to this that I would hope even folks who don’t accept
Constance McMillan’s right to be herself would find reprehensible.
Second, at times it’s crossed my mind that there were some folks out
there working in school systems who really loved the kind of petty crap
that went on in high school and get far too much pleasure out of
reliving it (this is not a comment on school professionals generally!).
At second hand, I’m sensing that in the folks making the decisions for
the school in Itawamba County. Third, at the back of my mind this
whole time has been my experience of being a ninth grader when the
Fifth Circuit decided they’d had it, and that it was time for complete
(rather than token) integration of public education in Mississippi.
One outcome was an immediate cancellation of school-sponsored proms,
leading in turn to private proms that, in the white community, became
sort of junior auxiliaries for the Ole Miss (or the like) greek system,
with all the exclusion and related snottiness that could imply.

I do have this recall of Kent Moorhead (to his credit) as president of
the student council a year ahead of me at Oxford High, making a large
thing out of trying to bring back school sponsored buses to out-of-town
football games (I think he won on that one) and school proms (he lost
that one). I’d hope for some student leader to join Constance in
telling the grownups how to behave, but I’m not holding my breath.