After a week in the books and taking in the knowledge and putting them on paper for my mid-term test in school, I am finally back. I have to say I was missing my blog for a moment. I heard a week in recap. There was Monique winning an Oscar, Howard Stern pulling a Don Imus, a death of a Lost Boy, a runoff win for a great Democratic leader in our area (Oh, kudos to WDBD Fox 40 for actually showing the guts to at least give the election results the day after. I wonder how come all FOX stations(including FOX News) are usually timely with giving the news than the other major branded stations?), Championship Week (for all the basketball fans), Torii Hunter calling Latinos "posers for African Americans" (you know you are wrong for that Torii), and Rush saying he is leaving the country if a health care bill pass (OOooooh, What are we going to do without Rush? SMH). Oh, did I mention that here in Mississippi we are having a “meth crisis” amongst the elite cities in the Jackson Metro Area. That one is another post coming soon.
Today I want to discuss something that happened two days ago. I want to say that kids are going to be kids and I feel as an adult to only show them a sufficient space of freedom of mind, speech, and all other things. What happened with Constance McMillen, an 18 year old senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, and the Itawamba County School System is sort of a free-for-all double edge sword.
The Itawamba County school board announced today it would cancel the Itawamba County Agricultural High School prom after a gay student challenged the district on its policy forbidding same-sex dates.
"Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year," school board members said in a statement released through the district’s attorney. "It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors.
"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone," the message concluded.
The announcement alarmed Constance McMillen, the 18-year-old senior who had petitioned the district to change its policy.
"Oh, my God. That's really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one," she said. "A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it’s really retaliation."
I have to say that sometimes adults need to let children be children, especially prom. This part is a case of closed minded adults versus free spirited teenagers. So she wanted to go to prom with another female. Big deal! She could have just said “I go into the school gym and when my date gets there we are walking in together. I am guessing that these board members forgot about the 80s, 90s, and 2000s movies that had prom night in them. Not all of them had a man and a woman together at times. So that is where the closed minded thing begins. Even if she said that she was a lesbian and proud of it, What give you the right to judge a person based on whether she or he go to a function with the same sex. Remember that Matthew 7:1-5 said that “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” So for the board members and the people who are against it in Mississippi remember. We have been judged a lot, and now is not the time to judge.
Now the other side of me is asking why Constance brought the ACLU into the mix. That is something I never got because she could have won on her own because people in the community would have fought for her. Bring outsiders like the ACLU and the LGBT to a community like that is not welcomed. You need a community voice not a national voice on this. That is why they nixed the prom altogether. I am not saying that she should have shut her mouth, but rather find a way to do it without the school board members and community families looking at you sideways. She should have taken a page out of the black hustlers’ book, do it without them knowing or saying anything.
How do you feel about the school district saying that prom is between “a man and a woman?” How can adults be more aware of children preferences in times like these?
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