Everybody cut footloose…
All you need are John Lithgow and Kevin Bacon and you can have a new sequel to Footloose. This time an Ohio Christian School has threatened to suspend a senior who is ready to graduate if he goes to the prom of his girlfriend (that obviously does not attend the same school he does).
The handbook for the 84-student Christian school says rock music “is part of the counterculture which seeks to implant seeds of rebellion in young people’s hearts and minds.”
I mean seriously, did the school just rip off the script of footloose and use Rev. Moore’s arguments as their code of conduct? Talk about life imitating art.
Of course, the other side of this story is my usual comment about how one should not participate in a game and then complain about the rules in the middle. Don’t start a game of chess and then complain that you can’t pass GO and collect $200. The student and parents did sign a form that basically allowed the school to have total control of their personal lives while they attended that school. So perhaps the parents should have thought a little longer and harder about what kind of school they were sending their child to.
Update: He was suspended.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
He’s a kid, a minor. Most likely, he didn’t have any say in these rules when his parents signed him up. Anyway, is it really worth messing up this kid’s life over a dance because “rules is rules”? It seems to me that the fallout from such would hurt the school more than it would help the boy.
On the other hand, is it really such a tragedy if he fails on account of not being able to follow extreme and superfluous rules seemingly in place as a power trip? I, for one, would wear that as a badge of honor for the rest of my life.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
If I were the principal, I would say no it is not worth it to ruin his life over a dance. Then again, that school would not be likely to hire me.
The people that should feel the most guilty are the parents, who sent him to that school in the first place.