Apr
2010
Here’s a handy tip for bigoted school students: When trying to convince everyone the “party” you threw wasn’t a “prom”, don’t label your Facebook photo albums “Prom 2010″. Just a thought.
I held off a day on running this post because the information coming out on Monday was shaky at best. The only source reporting what happened was a small blog which was inaccessible all day due to the crush of traffic coming from all of the inbound links to it. The news then was being reported only from Ms. McMillen’s view point to The Advocate, but now with other students confirming the sequence of events, it can all be confirmed.
When the judge ruled that Ms. McMillen’s first amendment rights had been violated, he refused to issue an injunction against the school to reinstate the prom because parents were organizing a private prom that it was assured the McMillen and her girlfriend could attend. This past Saturday she was informed that the prom was to be held at the local country club, but upon arriving it turned out to be her, her girlfriend and five other students, two of which were learning disabled.
Apparently a separate ”party” was being held some 30 miles away attended by the rest of the school and parents. In short, the parents condoned their children weeding out the “undesirables.”
The Inquisitr reports that a student at Itawamba Agricultural High School named Lindsay Begley wrote on the “Constance quit yer cryin” page on Facebook:
**Open Minded Readers Only**
I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.
The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.
Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.
The problem, as I see it, is that it wasn’t just Ms. McMillen that got “faked out”, but the two students who are learning disabled. Why were they not informed of this other “party”? There were three more unknown students at the Country Club, who were they, and why were they not informed of this other “party”?
As for this whole malarkey about it not being a “prom”, before the students got smart are marked their pictures as private, someone saved them all to a Flickr account. Yep … looks nothing like a prom. They also saved screenshots of numerous student profile pages of students calling it a prom, La Figa collected some of the best comments together, but missed my personal favorite.
Ms. Gaddy is a student at the school. Christopher Johnson? Well, it appears he may be a teacher at the school. It is a fairly common name, but the coincidence seems a bit much. While this says nothing of the school’s view of this event, it is a tad intriguing that someone who is potentially a school official is seemingly condoning the exclusion of students. True, it was not a school sanctioned event, but instead a private event. Again, amazingly convenient.
I have tried to remain neutral in this whole thing, but I simply can’t any more. I am sure I have somewhat revealed my feelings on this whole matter up until now, but at this point … you are all hopeless bigots. I can almost excuse the problems with Constance. I don’t approve of them, but I get where it all came from, but the two learning disabled kids you also excluded? That is where you totally messed up. I think with just Constance and her girlfriend the public would have just said, “well, you were all angry, it’s what happened.” Excluding the other five, and especially the two disabled students … I have a no cursing policy on this blog, but boy am I fighting that rule right now.
The fact that parents were involved in this, what sort of example are you setting for your children? ”Well, if they’re the least bit different, you exclude them from your lives.” Well, yeah, that’ll get them far in life. ”If someone rocks the boat and dares to stand up for their rights, if it goes against the majority, they must be stomped upon.” Hi, can I introduce you to the United States?
I have news for Ms. Begley, who was so distressed that her town was being portrayed as bigots and rednecks … that news is you’re not helping any of those stereotypes with these sorts of actions. You excluded people based on sexual orientation (your choice to say “sexual preference” says a lot about your viewpoint) and handicaps. You are bigots. Period. End of story.
I really hope you all enjoyed the prom, and just remember something … the Internet never forgets. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, your names will forever be associated with bigotry now. Some future employer will enter your name in a search engine and … “Oh, I see you were at the IAHS prom in 2010 … and you excluded seven kids for … oh wow …”
Hope that one night was worth it, kiddies. As for your parents … you all are lost causes.
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