Student stunt gets him banned from Prom

[cooks1]

Here we go- Was the schools punishment excessive or not?

Shelton HS Senior Banned From Prom: 'It Just Seems a Little Extreme' - Shelton, CT Patch

James Tate thought he was being original in his prom proposal to a friend, but ended up in hot water with the Shelton High headmaster.

When a Shelton High School senior went out of his way to make a creative prom proposal to a friend, he never thought it would result in his being banned from the annual dance event altogether.

But that's just what happened after James Tate and two friends took a ladder, some tape and a handful of cardboard letter cutouts to the outside wall of the school’s main entrance.

“It was just to show my friend a grand gesture and I was wanting to do something fun and original,” Tate told Patch.

Early Friday morning, around 1 a.m., Tate taped the question “Sonali Rodrigues, will you go to prom with me?” in hopes that the message would surprise his prospective date and be a neat talking point for the day.

The good: Rodrigues said 'Yes.' The bad: Tate’s prom hopes were crushed when headmaster Dr. Beth Smith gave him and the two friends one day of in-school suspension.

“School policy is that if you get an in-school after April 1, you can’t go to prom,” Tate said.

Smith was not immediately available for comment.

According to Tate, Smith justified the punishment by telling him that not only had he trespassed on school property, his actions also posed a safety risk.

“It’s not like we broke into the school or anything, though,” Tate said. “And I wore a helmet and brought friends along to hold the ladder and hand me the letters with tape on them.”

Tate said that when his headmaster gave her sentence, he tried to “air grievances and make a compromise with the administration” to no avail.

“I understand their reasoning that there needs to be consequences against me to avoid students one-upping in the future, but I offered to collect litter around the school and argued other options,” Tate said. “Give me a week of detention, but don’t give me an in-school suspension so that I can’t go to prom. It just seems a little extreme.”

Tate said that he is upset. “I feel like a jerk for getting my friends in trouble and for screwing Sonali out of a date," he said.

Tate said Rodrigues will still attend prom, but with a girlfriend rather than him.

As for the outpouring of support for him on Facebook, Tate said he feels grateful to have so many people on his side, “but maybe it’s too little too late.”

Someone, Tate doesn’t know who, took to the social media site and created a “Let James Tate Go to the Prom” page on Tuesday night, which gained more than 1,000 supporters in a matter of hours.

“I don’t know if Facebook could persuade them to change their decision,” he said. “Anybody on a social media site can rant and rave but if it holds value – I don’t really know.”

Personally, I like it. The principal is pretty fucking smart here. If she didn't put this kids head on a pike for all to see, every horny dick would be pulling similar shit.

I do feel bad for the kid, but this lesson will make the rest of his life better.

[tehend**]

Thats weak. Schools are lame now.
Posted via Mobile Device

[TheSgreen12]

Seemed like a pretty harsh punishment to me. But its understandable either way.

[runwhen_useeme**]

Weaksuace. Let the playas play.

[hughes fan]

So they don't want to condone it and make it that every year some kid tries to top it and twists his ankle or gets his throat sliced by an ice skate then the parents cry and sue the school, fair enough.
Maybe you should just give him the detention and then let it go because he owned up to it and wasn't like he denied it and wore a balaclava while doing it.

[Three Gun Fish]

It's the correct action, as much as I hate to say. Setting a precedent that stunts are okay may result in increasingly outlandish (and thus dangerous) efforts. I admire the kid for living his life like a movie.

Well, "admire" is overstating things.

[feeshermon]

Originally Posted by tehend

Thats weak. Schools are lame now.
Posted via Mobile Device

I agree. We used to get away with all kinds of fun shit.

[makavelitudo]

lol way too harsh, when i was graduating me and some buddies got drunk and decided to go spray paint our grad year and school all over a rival school. we got caught by video cameras and still were aloud at our prom

[WorldofWarcraft]

Seems harsh, but they're using him as an example. If they don't, future students will try to up the ante and come up with something more brazen.

[naked duck]

not harsh enough imo.