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THEVISTA
APRIL 6,.1999
Male student gets way; can wear dress to school dance By Lori Horvitz CollegePressWriter PIERSON, Fla. - For Saturday's prom, Charles Rice plans to wear a red, floor-length evening gown, red satin shoes, gloves and matching rhinestone jewelry. The 18-year-old Taylor High School senior will get to dress that way because Volusia School District administrators changed their minds Tuesday. Last week, Principal Peter Oatman told Rice he would be refused entrance to the prom if he showed up in drag. Oatman backed down Tuesday after conferring with Superintendent Bill Hall and school district attorneys, as well as reviewing news accounts of his initial decision. "It was just something I had to stand up for," Rice said after school Tuesday. Maybe so, Superintendent Bill Hall said, but Rice's victory isn't likely to help other cross-dressing
students who hope to come clothed as they please to class or school events. Hall said Rice gets to don his gown for the prom only because the principal let him wear skirts and dresses to special events in the past. There was the school talent show Rice hosted last spring and the homecoming dance he attended in a skirt and jacket in December. Because of these prior episodes, the school system would have had a weak case if the matter had gone to court, Hall said. "The court rulings have given principals the authority to enforce a reasonable dress code for regular school events, special events and other things that may go on," Hall said Tuesday. "But the rules have to be enforced consistently." Hall said the district isn't being intolerant, but is simply enforcing its dress code. "What I'm sure of is what is appropriate and is acceptable has to be defined," he said. "It cannot
dress codes, be disruptive." students Rice said the don't have a feminine outfits he "When he wore lot of wore in the past a skirt at freedom to never caused a homecoming, I ignore commotion. Rice, them, recent thought it was who wears typical court teen-age attire to kind of funny - a decisions class, bought his guy in a dress..." show. prom dress and The U.S. accessories at a Supreme DeLand bridal shop. —John Taylor Court hasn't "I should have the senior yet ruled on freedom to express a dress-code myself," insists Rice, case that who said he is gay. His grandmother, who raised addresses the issue of a student's him, declined comment. Rice has right to free speech. But lower the support of his classmates at courts generally have disagreed the rural northwest Volusia with students who challenged school dress codes on the basis campus. "When he wore a skirt at that the rules interfere with their homecoming, I thought it was right to express their individuality. In Volusia County, every kind of funny - a guy in a dress," senior John Taylor said. "I didn't principal creates a dress code get offended. If that's how he feels policy for his or her school. Both comfortable, then that's how he Hall and Oatman said the controversy surrounding Rice's should go." But when it comes to school prom apparel has prompted school ,
administrators to review the rules to determine if any need to be changed or tightened. Volusia isn't the only district that has dealt with a crossdressing student and dress-code questions. In 1994, school officials in Washington, D.C., let a junior high student graduate in drag after he threatened to sue. Districts in California and New York also have dealt with the issue, such as having gay proms. Carl Bushong, director of the Tampa Gender Identity Program, said he has talked with children from ages 6 to 18 who see themselves as the opposite gender. None has been allowed to dress the way they wanted at school or home, Bushong said. "With the 6-year-old's parents, I explained to them that there was nothing wrong with the child," he said. He was a little different, but they just wanted him cured. I said, 'Well, it's like trying to change the color of his blue eyes."
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