The Itawamba School District filed a brief containing several new revelations on Friday. The brief says prom was called off to settle the "very explosive and disruptive" issue of the district's ban on same-sex dating, the Clarion Ledger reports.
So the school actually has an official ban on same-sex dating?
"The filing by school board attorney Benjamin Griffith states that Itawamba Agricultural High School senior Constance McMillen 'wishes to make the defendant district the site for a national constitutional argument over gay and lesbian rights.' … Griffith said the student's rights were not violated.
'This is not an issue where anyone has been denied an education or suffered a constitutional deprivation,' he wrote in the filing. 'Rather, this is a social event that, in light of rapidly escalating circumstances, was disruptive to the school environment because people are on all sides of the issue.'
An affidavit filed Friday by attorney James Keith says school board members have been been under 'tremendous pressure' as a result of the controversy."
According to information in the newly filed briefs, parents have organized a private prom — and Constance isn't invited to that prom either:
"The school board's response states that parents have organized a private prom at a furniture mart in nearby Tupleo (sic). Now that the school district has withdrawn from the event, any constitutional claims are irrelevant, Griffith wrote. [ACLU attorney Christine] Sun said she had only heard rumors of the private dance until she read it in the brief.
'Constance has not been invited, so it is clear to me that what is happening is that the school has encouraged a private prom that is not open to all the students,' she said. 'That's what Constance is fighting for — a prom where everyone can go.'"
