When Stacy Dawson was told he couldn’t bring his boyfriend to prom at his high school in southern Missouri, he was rightfully outraged. But after he and the SPLC threatened to sue the school district, the discriminatory policy in the student handbook that prevented same-sex couples from attending the prom has been changed. 

“I found out why the stipulation in the student handbook was originally put in there, and it’s rather innocent, to be honest,” Alvin McFerren, Scott County Central School District superintendent, said. “This was during a time 10-15 years ago that the previous administration was having issues with some of the students trying to come in on either the single rate or the couple rate. They implemented that to make sure they couldn’t circumvent the rates that students were supposed to pay as they entered into our dances.”

McFerren said Dawson will be allowed to go to prom with his boyfriend.

“It was never intended to be a discriminatory thing,” he said. “We want an educational environment for all of our kids and we’re not ever going to discriminate as to whether or not the board has the policy and we don’t do that based on sexual orientation. Period.”

Woohoo! That’s how it’s done.