Dress professionally

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 be disruptive." dress codes,

Rice said the feminine outfits he wore in the past never caused a commotion. Rice, who wears typical teen-age attire to class, bought his prom dress and

"When he wore a skirt at homecoming, I thought it was kind of funny - a guy in a dress..."

students don't have a lot of freedom to ignore them, recent court decisions show.

accessories at a The U.S.

DeLand bridal shop. "I should have the freedom to express

—John Taylor ,

senior

Supreme Court hasn't yet ruled on

myself," insists Rice, who said he is gay.

His grandmother, who raised him, declined comment. Rice has the support of his classmates at the rural northwest Volusia campus. "When he wore a skirt at homecoming, I thought it was kind of funny - a guy in a dress," a dress-code case that addresses the issue of a student's right to free speech. But lower courts generally have disagreed with students who challenged school dress codes on the basis that the rules interfere with their right to express their individuality.

In Volusia County, every

senior John Taylor said. "I didn't get offended. If that's how he feels comfortable, then that's how he should go."

But when it comes to school

principal creates a dress code policy for his or her school. Both Hall and Oatman said the controversy surrounding Rice's 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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