Girls Win Right to Attend High School Dance as Pair

Score one for social activism on campus.

Faced with two riled students and a resolute attorney, Poway High School Principal David Hughes changed his mind Tuesday and decided to allow same-sex couples at school dances.

“I decided the girls were right and I was wrong,” Hughes said. “My understanding is that not allowing single-sex dates is discriminatory, and so we’ll be allowing them.”

Carrie Lasater and Emily Kolker, both 17-year-old seniors at Poway High, had threatened to sue to overturn the school’s policy banning same-sex couples at dances for couples. Hughes had said the policy was meant to reduce the number of trouble-making attributed to having unattached boys at such dances.

‘If Our Policies Are Wrong, They Need to Be Changed’

Hughes said he made his decision shortly after talking to Donald Hurst, assistant superintendent for educational services in the Poway Unified School District. He called Kolker into his office and talked to Lasater during lunch.

“I have no animosity toward the kids at all,” Hughes said. “If our policies are wrong, they need to be changed. If I’ve made a mistake, it needs to be corrected.”

Hughes is still concerned that among the unattached males at school dances will be graduates or students from other schools--considered the most likely candidates to start trouble because they are beyond the reach of school rules.

“We will have to review our procedures to make sure our needs of good behavior are met,” Hughes said.

Lasater said she is happy with Hughes’ decision but will be watching him to make sure he does not try to ban non-Poway High students from date dances.

“We want to see the new policy in writing,” Lasater said. “He wasn’t angry at us. He was very nice. But we want to watch what he does about boyfriends from other schools. I think the pressure got to him.”

Boyfriend Had to Work

The issue began when Lasater wanted to attend last Friday’s dance but found that her boyfriend had to work that night. She and Kolker tried to buy a ticket but were turned down by Hughes.

Robert DeKoven, a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and assistant professor at California Western School of Law, had written Hughes to warn him that the ban on single-sex couples violated the U.S. Constitution and state Education Code.

Lasater and Kolker are not new to political involvement. Both are members of a group called Students United for a Nonviolent Society, which last spring organized a “peace fair” on campus to discuss and debate weighty issues of war and peace.

What has the dance issue taught the pair?

“To use a slogan from the Youth Activism Task Force: ‘Youth Does Have a Voice,’ ” Lasater said. “Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. You can’t be apathetic.”