A Rhode Island schools superintendent has ended the district’s father-daughter dances and mother-son ballgames to comply with a state gender discrimination law, prompting some to complain that the move is an example of political correctness gone awry.
Cranston Mayor Allan Fung said Tuesday he was “utterly disappointed” that the Cranston schools superintendent nixed the events in what the mayor called “the name of political correctness” after the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union complained last spring.
The ACLU complaint in May came on behalf of a single mother whose daughter had no father in her life but was precluded from attending the father-daughter dance, ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said Tuesday.
In a letter to school organizations last month, Schools Superintendent Judith Lundsten said that school district attorneys reviewing the complaint found that, while federal gender discrimination laws exempt such events, Rhode Island law does not.
“I acknowledge that many of these events have long traditions and for many parents, these types of gender-based events are not an issue,” Lundsten wrote. “However, this is a public school system and under no circumstances should we be isolating any child from full participation in school activities and events based on gender. Please be all-inclusive when planning your events.”
A message left Tuesday for Lundsten was not immediately returned.
School Committee Member Andrea Iannazzi said the committee will consider at a Monday meeting a resolution asking the General Assembly to change state law to allow the events.
Brown told The Associated Press that gender-specific events are not appropriate and commended the school system for banning them. He also noted that the Cranston events play to gender stereotypes — dances for girls and baseball games for boys.
“Not every girl today is interested in growing up to be Cinderella — not even in Cranston,” Brown said in a statement later. “In fact, one of them might make a great major league baseball player someday.”
On Monday, Sean Gately, a Republican running for state Senate, criticized the district decision, calling gender-based events, including the mother-son baseball games, important traditions. Gately’s political opponent, Democrat Frank Lombardi, is a school committee member.
Gately on Tuesday said his wife was looking forward to taking their 7-year-old son to the sporting event. He called the superintendent’s decision “complete political correctness run amok” and said he is seeking a legislative fix.
A message left for Lombardi was not immediately returned.
The city’s mayor said he has been flooded with calls from angry parents about the ban.
Earlier this year, Cranston also was the site of an emotionally charged, months-long battle over a prayer banner at a local high school. The banner was ruled unconstitutional and ordered removed by a federal judge after a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of a student-atheist at the school. [source]
I’m a little torn on this one really as on one hand this is a very loving and long tradition for father and daughter! A tradition which so many have been fortunate enough to experience! A moment I would killllllll for. But at the same time…. the law is clear.
So… I’m torn…. but i doubt many of you will have that same problem.
What are YOUR thoughts, ohnawlians?
Ridiculous? Just right?
please excuse me cause I'm in an EXTREMELY foul mood today
single mother whose daughter had no father in her life but was precluded from attending the father-daughter dance
bitch fugg you! so you gonna make other kids suffer cause you probably fugged a deadbeat
fugg you
fugg you for real!
Now I'll take all this back if it came out that the girl's father is dead but I have a feeling that's probably not the case.
even if the father is slumming, the real issue to me is the daughter doesn't seem have a "father figure" in her life AT ALL. No uncle, grandfather, cousin, pastor, mentor, teacher….. NO ONE?
If that is the case that is the REAL tragedy.
As far as this change I say fugg that! Daddy/Daughter Day – Mother/Son Day should continue in some form or fashion. Those times and events are NECESSARY, in my opinion, for child development.
it shows a failure on the part of the mother
fugg her and her lack of parenting skills
even when Dorian's father was on some ish EYE made sure there were still some menfolk around to be of some sort of positive influence on him
fugg this bitch and all that she stands for!
So…there wasn't a cousin or uncle or neighbor or grandfather that she could have gone with?
So we're just gonna fugg up EV-AH-REE-THANG because one kid's parent is mad at HER life choices?
Edit: And that pic up top is giving me total life lol
I think I'm in a more foul mood than Beth this morning, so….You know what, heffa, please….I tell you what, all the men need to get together and do their own thing…a father's job is to keep his daughter off the damn pole and that's what these men are doing! I'm so sick of everybody and their damn feelings…Fck your feelings, deal with life! If more schools had activities like this, less girls would grow up looking for love in all the wrong places….This bytch mad cause her daughter didn't get invited to the cool kids sleep over…man, bye!
some people just want to put salt in the game and want others to be miserable because they are. sucks to be the girl who ruined father daughter dances/ mother son games for an entire state! one person vs entire state. i'm sure had the mother et al sought out alternatives such as male relative or volunteer, everyone could have enjoyed these events. as pointed out, the mother was probably mad because she chose a sorry excuse of a man to be the father of her daughter. i think if the girl's father had passed away, the mother would be able to appreciate how important a father is to a girl. although i think the term "hater" is used all too frequently in today's culture, but if this woman isnt a hater, i dont know who is.
single mother whose daughter had no father in her life but was precluded from attending the father-daughter dance
bitch fugg you! so you gonna make other kids suffer cause you probably fugged a deadbeat
Yeah, I must be in a foul mood too because that stuck out to me and pissed me off. So because of this woman's "life circumstances" everyone else has to suffer? Including her daughter? Nawl bish…DO BETTER! This is an not only an example of PC gone awry but also entitlement, self-centeredness, and a host of other boolshyt. I want to meet this broad so I can slap the taste out of her mouth….selfish whore!
There is always going to be at least one hater.
This by no means a gender discrimination. But someone upset that because she did not choose the right one, that everyone else has to suffer. Heck I would be upset as hell if my Daughters and I could not be a part of something like this. And I am sure that there are other events that would be arranged for the young lady to attend.
Everything is not always about discrimination. But for some strange reason, people like to make it seem like that is the case.
So this woman had no father, brother, close family friend; no one who could have went with her daughter? And because you made questionable for a father (alleged), everyone else has to suffer for it? I know of many daughters and fathers that the father daughter dance was a turning point in their relationship, for the better. This is not discrimination, this is a bitter bytch.
Based on this stunt she pulled she doesn't sound like someone, whether it be a man or woman, who is a pleasure to be around.
I feel sorry for her daughter. She's probably catching HELL at school because her Mother is a crab in a bucket.
"Based on this stunt she pulled she doesn't sound like someone, whether it be a man or woman, who is a pleasure to be around."
I was thinking this, so I'm glad you said it. It sounds more like punishing the world than supporting her daughter. And her daughter probably is catching hell too.
Yes, the mother has a horrible case of BBS (Bitter Bytch Syndrome)
That mother needs to have a stadium of seats. I bet she wanted to attend with her daughter, since she is mother & 'father' since daddy isn't around. And it doesn't say that the girl doesn't have an uncle, cousin, or play father — someone who could have taken her; not that she even wanted to go — I'm thinking this is all sour grapes on Mom's part. Selfish trick…
I'm not in a foul mood, but this almost put me in one. I can understand the pain a kid can have because they don't have a father to take them to the dance; but
1) Depriving another young lady of an activity that she will cherish for the rest of her life is cruel. This is not a chewing gum situation; "if we all can't have a stick, nobody can." This event is the father introducing her daughter to the world as a "young lady". That is important to and for young sisters, and as many need to experience it as possible.
2) This is punishing the good fathers for the bad fathers, bad mothers, or bad situations that the parents find themselves in. I could say alot more, but let those brothers that are doing what the world says men don't do get their day in the sun.
3) I'm not going to rant about the mother(s), or call names, but making sure their is some semblance of a village raising your child is every parent's responsibility. Just like single fathers need to take their daughter's to dance class, or somewhere where their are caring women who can stand in for the missing mothers, single mothers need to take their daughters to some youth center or somewhere where their are caring men. She can also asked a teacher from previous years, a neighbor, etc., to take her daughter. If the dance happens every year, it was no surprise that it was coming. She could have been looking for a way to add her daughter to it rather than take it away from everyone else.
Cancelling that dance was just soooooo wrong.
"If the dance happens every year, it was no surprise that it was coming."
That's what also killed me. I didn't see a grade level listed in the article, so I'm going to assume this happened at the end of 8th grade before the girls enter high school. Most girls are 13-14 when they enter high school. So you mean to tell me that you knew for at least 13 years that this dance was gonna happen and couldn't get not a one man to commit to going with this girl in 12 years? There is NOT A SINGLE MALE that gives even an iota of a fugg about this girl that could have been asked in 12 years?
I didn't have a father, but I have two uncles and a Grandpa who stepped up to the plate. Hence, fugg that trick with a rusty pitch-fork! >_< Pretty sure a number of prior attendees didn't have a bio-dad either, but they had father figures. Way to wreck something for everyone. Bravo.
What if the child's father was dead or in jail? Maybe there's a reason for no males being around (from family). [/devil's advocate]
In any case, I feel they should have made an exception for the child and allowed her mother to escort her. That way, she could be exposed to seeing how positive men are there for their daughters and vow to make better choices in life. Perhaps one of her friends could have shared their father (I would've asked this, myself).
But to dismantle the whole programs over one child's lack of parent? NAWL. There were better solutions to this problem.
I wish I had this as a kid… but then, I would've been the odd girl out because my dad was selfish (but I probably would've asked a friend's dad or a cousin… or just took my mom).
I don't get how celebrating these parental relationships or the people who fill that roll in their
lives is gender discrimination. For whatever reason her daughter doesn't have her father or
any other male figure in her life. Doesn't mean that events that celebrate those relationships
should be banned.
This is what happens when we are lead to believe… that the world is fair. When it's not.
That everyone gets a trophy. Because it's not fair for the winners to only get trophy's.
The need to punish everyone, simply cause your child is left out, has gotten out of hand.
But teaching a child that everyone loses out in life… is a brutal truth that needs to be learned. Just so you can grow to understand how to handle, not always getting your way. That life is not fair. And everyone does not deserve a dang trophy for just showing up.
And I am disappointed that this event for the yearly, Father-Daughter dinner's, now are being cancelled. All in the name of political correctness.
These are memories that a young girl will carry with her for life. And as unfortunate as it is for this young girl to miss out… I am more alarmed that she has no positive male presence in her life. That could have been blessed with chaperoning this young girl to dinner for an evening.
Now her Mother has made sure that this young girl will have to walk around for the rest of her school years. With everyone knowing the event was forever killed off… because her Mother lack the ability to understand the fall out from her own selfishness.
In general, I am in favor of having a "family dance", so kids with 2 moms/dads/whatever would feel included.
BUT if this is all the work of a bitter bytch – who couldn't even motivate a male relative to take her daughter to this dance – she needs to just drink a Clorox cocktail.
Dead @ Cloroxcocktail!!! ___/\___/\_____/\_______________________________________
They all need to chip in $50 and have the dance at a private venue. This is just sad, though.
you know i'm not all for using the b word unless fully needed. but this woman is a b*tch in every sense of the word. now she is hated not only in her own town, but the whole country knows how much of an idiot she is. and i'm so sick of the school boards all over being made up of spineless twerps that refuse to use common sense out of fear of law suits. at a time when kids are killing kids and we celebrate teens having babies, the world needs events like this to showcase the bond parents have with their kids. even i have filled in at events like this for some of my friends, so if there isn't a male to do this for this mother, she sure knows how to pick the people around her. and i bet you this dumb lady is proud of this decision. at the very least they could have a parent/child dance so that should include ANY combination so that no child's valuable childhood memory is ruined and no heartless, fragile parent is left out either. and if her family and friends aren't ripping her a new one right now…well they ain't shyt either!
What an egotistic shythead. I wonder how well her special little fatherless snowflake will do socially when word gets out her mother is to blame for the loss of the event. Oh, so you didn't think of that?
Should've relocated right away, seeing as now you might feel like it anyway.
Punk move. See, had we had that kind of deal in our town, my mother would've told me why I couldn't go and taken me for another nice activity we both enjoy so I wouldn't have minded it. Buuut that requires actual educational effort/spending extra time with your kid to compensate… doesn't sit well with some folks.
It's RIDICULOUS!!! So ALL the children have to miss out?! How is that right?
The world is not fair. You cannot change the world to fit you. You have to educate yourself and your children to navigate the world. This tramp is lazy and hateful. My daughters father passed when she was 4 months so I understand the feeling of loss she may have been feeling for her child, but I think for her to go this far there had to be a determination in her core that had to be fueled by bitterness not love. Love wouldnt allow you to discount everyone elses feelings to comfort yours. This is not how you show your babies love. SMH praying for the baby.