Cranston, Rhode Island (pronounced “Craaaaaaaanston”) has given in to ACLU pressure and has banned father-daughter dances as a violation of the state anti-discrimination law.
Via Providence Journal:
In a move that has taken some parents by surprise, the school department has announced that it is banning traditional “father-daughter” and “mother-son” activities, saying they violate state law.
Supt. Judith Lundsten said the move was triggered by a letter ifrom the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a single mom who had complained that her daughter had not been able to attend her father-daughter dance.
Lundsten said school attorneys found while federal Title IX legislation banning gender discrimination gives an exemption for “father-son” and “mother-daughter” events, Rhode Island law doesn’t.
Via the local ABC affiliate the move was in response to an ACLU complaint about “gender specific” events:
When students returned to school this year, there was a big change made to their annual activities. Cranston schools will no longer have “gender specific events,” such as father-daughter or mother-daughter dances.
The ban came after the ACLU filed a complaint on behalf of a single mother who said her daughter could not attend these dances. The ACLU argues the dances go against federal law that prohibits gender discrimination. While federal law gives an exemption for dances like the “father-daughter,” Rhode Island law does not.
Anyone who tells you this isn’t a culture war is lying.
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Comments
It’s not enough to give in to nut job muslims but government is giving in to NAMBLA too?
My first impulse is to be outraged, but my second impulse is to wonder where in the heck there even are things like mother-son, father-daughter dances. Sounds creepy.
A lot of thumbs down. Jesus. This school dances for fathers and daughters or mothers and sons stuff must be a sacred institution in wherever the hell you people are from. I think every teenager where I grew up would rather have a bullet in their head than go to a dance like this. And I’m not entirely sure that the parents wouldn’t as well.
Abe: I never went to one either. My mom WAS dead.
My condolences, though it’s a rather strange comment.
Your initial comment was to find the dances “creepy” which was your opinion and fine. Your followup comment was to be somewhat put off by the negative response to your first comment. What did you expect? My comment on my mom was I would have been happy to have her available for such a dance. Some of my better posts elicit either little response or negative response and that is fine. I dont see this forum as a popularity contest. Pablo caught hell in an earlier comment re: the qestioning of the videographer anti muslim video. God bless both he and you for your opinion. We’d all be better off with a live and let live attitude.
Lefties would rather impoverish everyone than allow some to have less than others. Whatever the reason for her being single parent, the fact is that children are better off in traditional, two-parent homes. It is petty to deny others whatever enjoyment they derive from celebrating their relationship with a simple dance. Phrased that way, there’s not doubt which side would the ACLU take if homosexuals were not allowed to celebrate their relationship with a simple dance. FWIW, I find the quasi-dating dances/promise rings/proms/date nights that are popular right now creepy.
What is that saying we all grew up with? Oh yeah, life is not fair. This is a culture of feelings instead of rationality. They should ban all ballroom dancing because there might be a person who was born without arms and who can’t lead. Oh yeah, it also discriminates because men lead – it’s sexist. These people are truly nuts and for the courts to side with them shows you how schooling makes no difference. You cannot do anything for stupid.
Actually, it sounds more like Kveeeeaaaaanston when my mother-in-law says it. As if dealing with the dance police isn’t torture enough.
” The ACLU argues the dances go against federal law that prohibits gender discrimination. While federal law gives an exemption for dances like the “father-daughter,” Rhode Island law does not. ”
Does this come into play as well if a father wants to dance with his daughter, the bride, at her wedding, or the mother with her son at his?
These dances go way back to days when the parent , child relationships were more gender exclusive. Fathers taught sons what would be their role ; likewise mothers taught daughters. If a father was not avalable then an uncle would take his niece. The reason for the dances is obvious and holds to today. Those were simpler days governed by common sense. Today we are more “enlightend” and defer to fools , busybodies and hysterics.
Yeah… I just commented in the ProJo a little while ago.
RI became a California styled nanny state some years back and is under the total influence of eastern progressives. Thank gawd I escaped a couple of decades ago!
The cradle of religious freedom has now become the center for hatred of long observed traditions.
A sorry mess indeed…
I don’t know if this woman is a single parent from choice (she’s got a sperm donor baby daddy but not a husband) or involuntarily (a widow). What I do know is she is typical of the progressive Communist mindset ruling the country. If they don’t have something, you can’t have it.
Somebody else has money and you don’t? Demand the wealth be spread around.
Somebody is qualified for something and you aren’t? Claim discrimination.
Somebody else has a father and you don’t? You must not be seen at public social events with yours so the person won’t feel deprived.
Baby girl, your mama may have made a choice to give you a baby daddy instead of a father. Take it up with your mom, suck up the envy, and let other people enjoy their daddies in peace.
These dances are a big tradition here in the Deep South. The public elementary school that my stepdaughter attends holds one of these dances every year, complete with a professional photographer. In order to accomodate the fact that not all kids have two parents at home, it is called a ‘Small-Tall Dance’. Personally, I find it a bit creepy, but I have to admit that the photos are adorable every year.
It would seem that simply calling it a “small-tall dance” would have avoided the need for expensive litigation and allowed people who like these sorts of things to hold these sorts of dances….sigh….
Well. And what do boys do when the school holds a designated father-daughter activity?
Before we yanked our kids out of the public schools to home school them, the local elementary announced this Thanksgiving activity: a father-daughter “Indian Princess Dance” for the girls to attend, and a “Little Chiefs” hiking and cookout something or other for the boys. This did not sit well with many of the girls, who would have preferred to go on a hike and cookout, and also be “chiefs” rather than “princesses”. It also did not sit real well with many of the fathers of girls.
Public schools have no business in the first place doing social engineering, whether one agrees or not with the underlying message or theme. They exist to be teaching academics, a job which too many schools do far too badly.
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We’ve been addressing, for some years now, the question of the majority oppressing the minority. So, when is it that we begin to address the “tyranny” of the minority?
“a single mom who had complained that her daughter had not been able to attend her father-daughter dance”
Instead of whining to the ACLU perhaps this single mother should have wondered about what sort of pitiful childhood she was providing her daughter in that there wasn’t one male who would step in as a quasi-father figure for thie dance. You have to wonder what the girl child is learning about men
What I find disturbing is the people who think a father-daughter/mother-son dance is creepy. What is wrong with you people? Have you all been sucked in by the idiot Hollywood filmmaker who thinks incest is okay so you must view such bonding relations as creepy? The dances are a fantastic way for a dad and a mom to teach the kid how they should expect to be treated with courtesy and how they should treat their partner with courtesy. It’s a fantastic rite of passage that involves the parent in their kid’s social life and the occasion for a lot of pride on both sides.
Creepy? Sheesh!
Absolutely right!!!!!
Yet another example of political correctness running into stupidity…
This everyone’s a victim bullshit is the major sympton of what is wrong with this country. You don’t have a father/mother? Sorry, but what right does that give you to ruin the fun of the majority of your friends?
School dances are unfair to nerdy, unpopular kids who can’t get dates. They should be banned.
Yeah, I guess I am a little bitter. Why do you ask?
What is it with all the “creepy” comments about Father-Daughter dances?????? Fathers love their daughters and daughters love their fathers. What is creepy about it, other than folks trying to look as though they’re modern and agree with pointed heady “enlightened and elite” freaks at the ACLU????
It’s just more destruction of a beautiful way of life. My Dad loved me and did all kinds of things with me, fun things. All you people trying to ignore the beauty of a good father-daughter relationship need to quit aiding and abetting the killing of very good things.
Our federal government sponsers Father’s Day events in public housing developments.
http://fatherhood.gov/dadtalk-blog/celebrating-fatherhood-public-housing-authorities
Seriously I am a single mom with 2 girls and 2 boys. I have friends cousins help me out with activities like this, ya know like any sane person would. I would not run to the ACLU and the fact that these activities are banned at all is just ridiculous