Another highschooler barred from prom.

[bikercelt1]

Good for you Jena. I'm glad you and Eric stood your ground and sorry for what it cost you. This is one of those life lessons though, one that many of us have grappled with on many occasions, "do I stand up to small-mindedness or go along with the status quo?". You and Eric stood your ground with the help of his Mother and it cost you something, but it gained you something too. You now know that there are a lot of people here, and in other places too I'm sure, who appreciate the stand you took and stand with you because of it. You expressed concern over people who will hate you because of this. I suspect that those people are far fewer than you fear, but they may in fact be there. There are always people ready to hate others for any number of reasons or no reason at all. Don't focus on them. Be aware of them, keep track of them, but keep your focus on the things that you value and the people who support you.

I'm glad you posted here and let us know your view of things.

Jamie

[GMan]

Jena,

You and Eric have my complete support! I do work with local politicians on various issues, and sometimes they take their time to get things done! But do not give up please! Conformity is boring, and as you are discovering here, is that we do not conform. It is hard to stand out and be different, but it also takes a lot of individuality. I am glad for you for Eric and his Mom. Next year will be better defined because of what you did.

[Jewddha]

Jena, welcome here, and do see is your man there and his mother mgiht drop us a line. And of course, I'm behind him (and you) all the way.

[Mike1]

If any of you are interested, the story has made it into the Herald.

[macwilkin]

The Scotsman and The Guardian are carrying the story as well; Brian Wilton of the Scottish Tartans Authority is quoted in both of these.

Yours Aye,

Todd

[arrogcow]

I was on your side until I heard your own account. Yes, your principal and school board are made up of ignorant fools, who made a bad rule. However, the rule did exist and you were in full knowledge of it, so you were responsible for how your night turned out.

Was making a point that the rule was stupid more important than attending your prom? My dad (minister btw) always told be not to be afraid to break a law I thought was unjust, but to be prepared to take the consiquences if I was caught.

Basically what you did was the equivalent of walking up to a cop and say, "I'm 18, old enough to vote, old enough to be in the military, I should be old enough to drink.", and then shotgun a beer right in front of him. Regardless of how he personally feels, despite how good your argument is, he is going to arrest you. Why, because you broke the law. You broke the school's law, and have paid the price. Yes it is a "bad" law and should be changed. I applaud your attempt a the petition. You probably should have tried to get some of these Scottish societies behind the week before the prom.

Regardless, the school does not owe you an apology. They should look at their dresscode, and have it updated by next year.

Adam

[beerbecue]

Well, after having read Jena's account, and after having read the article in the Herald, I must stand by Eric and Jena with my full support. Regardless of whether they didn't follow the 'law' (which it is NOT, btw), the administration has made a mistake.

From the Herald article: Tim Roggenbuck, principal of Osakis High School, told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper that they had not intended to inflame the Scottish community.
"We just had our rules. It wasn't anything against the kilt. I've never seen one before, and I thought it was very classy looking.
"If something had been brought to us months before and we'd had time to look at it, and take a little study of it – I'm not saying for sure, but maybe we would have said yes."

From Jena's post: Erin and I wrote up a very polite petition (seriously, this was very well written, even the principal said so) and within 2 hours, we had 81 signatures from the Junior and Seniors of the Osakis High School, all of them agreeing that it didn’t matter what was worn as long as it was formal. I also looked up kilts in a book that i included with the petition, just so the principal was aware of what it looked like.

Why should it take MONTHS for someone to decide that a kilt with Prince Charlie is formal attire?? Was the principal aware of what the kilt was and what the attire was BEFORE the prom? Yes. But why did he say he didn't know about them......

I'm sorry, but I can't help but conclude that the principal is small-minded, and is only behaving this way because it seems, from my and others' high school experiences, that prinicpals and other "adults" in powers of position must be 'right' when they are dealing with students.

I think it is past time to save face, and Mr. Roggenbuck needs to eat crow - maybe we can send him the recipe that was posted earlier.......

[Doc Hudson]

Here is the recipe. Feel free to share it with the school administration in Osakis.

Doc Hudson

Crow ala Taurus.
Mike Cumpston
I got this idea from a pre-outdoor channel documentary about shooting crows in Kansas. The hunters told how to soak crow breasts in brine to shake loose the subcutaneous membrane and then cooked them some way or another. I had always heard that crows were inedible and am reasonably convinced that this was merely an attempt to sugar coat the practice of shooting crows to keep the general public from whining about it.
The recipe is concocted with two major purposes in mind: Render the dense, deep-purple meat as flavorful as possible; and, kill any random parasites that might be present.
1. Obtain Crow- any crow will do.
2. Remove core and jacket remnants including the plastic tip. ( the major portion of the core ezited but there were enough fragments left behind to make it way neat)
3. Remove entrails, head and feet and yank out all feathers.
4. Soak in salt water over night- remove tough outer membrane from breast
5. Lay the carcass on a large sheet of aluminum foil –salt and pepper. Stuff the body cavity with onion slices and mushrooms.
6. Moisten with a generous dollop of Old Crow Kentucky Whiskey. Wrap and seal foil around the meat.
7. Bake in oven until tender. I had planed on 1.5 hours but went to sleep after drinking a peg of the remaining Old Crow and didn’t get back to the oven until over 2 hours had passed.

The finished bird retains its purplish hew. The meat is relatively tender. (relative to possum) . It retains a rather smoky flavor-the kind of smoke you might get from cooking over rolled up newspapers. It reminded me of visits to local shotgun shacks that were heated with the stainless steal “Paper Stoves” that were actually designed to used newspaper rolls for fuel.
Crow ala Taurus is a welcome break from ordinary fare. The dangers of picking up parasitic organisms or West Nile Virus are greatly exaggerated

[arrogcow]

By "law" I meant the rules of the institution. For instance when I was in high school, if you were caught smoking, you were suspended. Not it is perfectally legal to smoke if you are over 18, and many students at my school were. However, the school "law" said no.

Was the decision to bar kilts (and anything not a tux) a bad rule, a stupid rule, an ignorant rule? Yes, yes and yes, but it still was a rule. The process to start changing the rule was started, but too late to help these two kids.

Look at it this way. The principal (or school board) would have to consider the ramifications of changing the rule to "formal dress." What does this mean? Is native American clothing appropriate - it is traditional garb? What about a Polynesian student who shows up in a grass skirt and no shirt to express his heritage? Sound silly, yes it is (and I'm not saying that they should be excluded). But there have been cases in the last few years of guys showing up in ball gowns, and claiming that they were entitled since girls could wear them. Granted these were stunts by students trying to make fun of the system, but they show the slippery nature of language.

As for the school board needing months to make a ruling. If you think this is too long, you have never been to a school board meeting. She may have gotten lucky if there is someone with strong Scottish ties on the board, and it would have taken one meeting. More likely they would have had to debate all the ramifications of it, have the public weigh in on the topic, and then carefully try to word a new dress code that would still keep out students that were trying to make a specticle, which would have taken 2-3 months.

Showing up at the event kilted was not going to change anyone's mind. If I (a person who wears kilts every day) had been at the door, and in full knowledge of the rule, I would have sent him away. Heck, they tried to accomodate him, by suggesting khakis (which still broke the dress code I think). Why, because if I had let him in, then I would have had to let anyone in (jeans and t-shirt, sure come on in, we're ignoring the rules tonight). I'm sure that there was at least one guy with shorts in his car for the after prom evernts that once the dancing had started, would have gone and changed out of his tux, just because he could.

Again I applaud the young man for staging his own little protest. Hopefully, this will get the rule changed in the future, now that there has been some public outcry (and again I'm against the rule, but not those who enforced it). But they don't get to have their cake and eat it too. Either protest an unfair rule, or go to the prom and have a good time (or at least as good a time as you can have in pants). Next time start your campaign to change something as soon as you can, maybe you will change the world.

Adam

[beerbecue]

As the years slip by, I think they will both realize that prom is not a big deal.... I think Eric standing up for his heritage, and Jena supporting him, is far more important than a high school dance... These sorts of actions speak of character and conviction - something much of our youth lacks....

Regardless of the question of whether they should have been turned away, and the validity or short-sightedness of the dress code, I think they did the right thing for the long term... and the principal, of course was acting according to the 'rules' - that is what it is, and as a beaurocrat, he acted accordingly. But that is the trouble with beaurocracy - you must cover your @$$, and it takes months for decisions to be made.

As a high school student, I had very little respect for the administration - as they had very little for me (I was an academic,not an athlete, and those were the golden children of our school). I never caused problems, was bright, etc., and to this day (and most likely still will be, after I have kids) will only give administrators respect if they have earned it.

Its bad enough that our education system, in general, tends to belittle and pigeonhole our children... Sure, a boy showing up in a ballgown sounds ludicrous, but what if that was the lifestyle that this individual has chosen? What if his parents were OK with it? Is it the schools' right to tell that child and his parents how he is to present himself?? NO.

My school had the similar rule about smoking on school grounds, but this dance was not on school grounds, but on private property, unless I misread the article.

Something here is beginning to smack a little of 'Footloose'.....

Might I suggest to Jena and Eric they dress in their prom finery and treat themselves to a well deserved night out at a fine restaurant, and spring for a limo... they have earned it.....

And if you can't tell, I HATED high school, and everything associated with it..... So forgive a bitter nearing-middle-age man for ranting......