Good news. Sort of.
Yesterday I wrote about Amanda Dougherty, the 17-year old girl who was not allowed to attend her prom because she did not have a date.
It appears that she attended the prom after all, but only after finding a replacement date. Had no male escort been found, she still would have been barred from the event.
This makes me happy for the young lady, who had expressed a strong desire to attend her prom, but it does not mitigate the actions of the school administrators, who have chosen to keep this arcane, potentially humiliating policy in place.
I still hope that they find themselves alone on Christmas.
I was also surprised to discover is that my high school, and many other high schools at the time, had similar policies in place when I was attending my proms.
I had no idea.
I attended a total of seven proms and one sophomore semi-formal in my time.
I attended my sophomore semi-formal with my friend, Wendy, who recently referred to me as a hot celebrity. I am still not sure what made this event semi-formal.
I attended my junior and senior proms with my high school girlfriend, Laura.
Laura and I then attended the proms of two friends from neighboring towns, swapping dates in order to gain access.
I’m still not sure why we did this. We enjoyed our proms well enough, but squeezing two additional proms seems a little silly in retrospect.
A year out of high school, I attended the prom of my girlfriend, Lisa, who was a senior in high school at the time.
I also attended the prom of a tragically shy co-worker who misconstrued my agreement to attend her prom as a sign that I liked her in a romantic way (even though she knew my girlfriend at the time). We left the prom less than an hour after arriving once it became clear that she was extremely uncomfortable at the event. She didn’t appear to have a relationship with any of her classmates and was even more withdrawn among them than she was at work. I suggested that we find something better to do, and she smiled for the first time that night and agreed. Instead of dancing the night away, we went to Dairy Queen for cheeseburgers and ice cream and then to the movies, still dressed in our formal wear.
We saw Say Anything, which seemed especially fitting at the time.
It actually turned out to be a fun and memorable night. But a week later, when I was forced to explained to the girl that I only wanted to be friends, she sent me a series of disturbing letters, one implying that she was going to hurt herself if I did not reciprocate her feelings. I was forced to bring the matter to the attention of my boss and ultimately the girl’s parents, bringing an end to our friendship entirely.
Four years later, while managing the night shift McDonald’s, I took a girl named Francis to her prom when her mother forbade her from attending the prom unless she found an escort who her mother trusted implicitly. Being Francis’s boss and having survived an armed robbery together, I was her mother’s first choice, and naturally I agreed to escort her.
Other than the fact that I was referred to as “white boy” for most of the evening, we had a great time.
