MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
I've never heard of any school doing this, seems like it's on very shaky legal ground.
Boston Herald
A Cape Cod teen is all dressed up with no place to go after her high school snooped into her boyfriend’s past and banned him from the prom after learning he’d been convicted of pot possession.
“It’s like a smack in the face,” said 18-year-old Erica Eckert, one of two seniors whose non-student boyfriends were too bad for the big dance. “I’m honestly not sure what I want to do,” she said in a tearful interview last night.
Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School banned Eckert’s 19-year-old boyfriend from Saturday’s soiree after a criminal background check turned up a past marijuana possession charge, Eckert said.
The school started Criminal Offender Record Information checks this year for non-students going to the prom. Any date with a criminal past would be rejected, she said. A School Committee member last night said the school’s administrators - not the School Committee - approved the policy.
Now Eckert’s mom Kathy is out the $500 she paid for her daughter’s turquoise dress, limo and makeup for the big night.
“It’s just a real shame that everything is paid for,” she said. “It’s really sad.”
The Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union said the school’s actions are illegal.
“The principal cannot go snooping in CORI records for people,” said Norma Shapiro, the ACLU’s legislative director.
She said that state CORI laws permit digging into the criminal past of school volunteers with access to students.
“Exactly how does that extend to the prom?” Shapiro said.
Kathy Eckert met with the principal yesterday to plead with him but could not convince him, she said.
Principal Kenneth Jenks did not return calls for comment.
Another senior, Lindsey Roderick, 17, said her 20-year-old boyfriend of three years was also rejected. The school never told her they were digging into his past, she said.
“It’s very unfair,‘’ she said.
Eckert got the bad news Friday when she went to the school office and picked up the application she filled out for her boyfriend, a Rhode Island college student. The word “rejected” was written on the sheet.
“I was so upset,” said a tearful Eckert, who still hasn’t decided whether she’ll go to the prom alone or just stay home.
Boston Herald
A Cape Cod teen is all dressed up with no place to go after her high school snooped into her boyfriend’s past and banned him from the prom after learning he’d been convicted of pot possession.
“It’s like a smack in the face,” said 18-year-old Erica Eckert, one of two seniors whose non-student boyfriends were too bad for the big dance. “I’m honestly not sure what I want to do,” she said in a tearful interview last night.
Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School banned Eckert’s 19-year-old boyfriend from Saturday’s soiree after a criminal background check turned up a past marijuana possession charge, Eckert said.
The school started Criminal Offender Record Information checks this year for non-students going to the prom. Any date with a criminal past would be rejected, she said. A School Committee member last night said the school’s administrators - not the School Committee - approved the policy.
Now Eckert’s mom Kathy is out the $500 she paid for her daughter’s turquoise dress, limo and makeup for the big night.
“It’s just a real shame that everything is paid for,” she said. “It’s really sad.”
The Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union said the school’s actions are illegal.
“The principal cannot go snooping in CORI records for people,” said Norma Shapiro, the ACLU’s legislative director.
She said that state CORI laws permit digging into the criminal past of school volunteers with access to students.
“Exactly how does that extend to the prom?” Shapiro said.
Kathy Eckert met with the principal yesterday to plead with him but could not convince him, she said.
Principal Kenneth Jenks did not return calls for comment.
Another senior, Lindsey Roderick, 17, said her 20-year-old boyfriend of three years was also rejected. The school never told her they were digging into his past, she said.
“It’s very unfair,‘’ she said.
Eckert got the bad news Friday when she went to the school office and picked up the application she filled out for her boyfriend, a Rhode Island college student. The word “rejected” was written on the sheet.
“I was so upset,” said a tearful Eckert, who still hasn’t decided whether she’ll go to the prom alone or just stay home.