Teenage Mother Fights Rose Court Rule

Sixteen-year-old Lynn Spurlock hopes to change at least one custom of the tradition-bound Rose Parade.

The John Muir High School senior, who is the mother of an 11-month-old daughter, has started a campaign to persuade the Tournament of Roses to change its rules and allow mothers to become queens or princesses.

“There are about 17 girls with babies at my school, and we were all upset,” Spurlock said about learning of the rules when tournament officials took a recruiting trip to John Muir. “Everyone is supposed to be equal, but with things like this everyone isn’t equal.”

More than 120 students have signed the petition saying that “John Muir High School teenage parents feel it’s unfair that the Rose Court discriminates against teenage mothers.”

Libby Evans Wright, a member of the tournament’s executive committee, said mothers aren’t allowed to compete because being on the royal court involves a tremendous amount of time that would compete with the demands of parenting.

She emphasized that the rule is not based on a moral judgment by the tournament.

“Basically, the rules for eligibility reflect the role of the queen and court, which calls for its members to attend 150 or so engagements,” Evans Wright said. “There are eligibility requirements for most pageants.” The Miss America contest, for example, also forbids mothers and wives from competing.

Motherhood is not the tournament’s only restriction. The rules limit participants to unmarried female students in the Pasadena area who will be at least 17 by parade day and who have had a 2.0 grade point average for two years, Evans Wright said.

Spurlock, who will be 17 by Jan. 1, said one of the things she has learned from her government teacher is that change only occurs when someone challenges the status quo.

“Maybe in the future teenage mothers will have a chance at this because of our actions,” she said.

Evans Wright, a banker and health care executive who is slated to become the Tournament of Roses’ first female president in 2006, said this is the first time she can recall motherhood being an issue.

Spurlock said she plans to present a letter and the petition to tournament officials, who will announce the royal court Oct. 12 and the rose queen Oct. 20.

“If you ask them, ‘Do you discriminate by race?’ they’d say, ‘No.’ Then I am going to ask them, ‘Why do you discriminate against a lifestyle?’ ” she said.

Spurlock said that she is glad she decided to raise her daughter, Destini, and that though she and the baby’s father are not married, he is an active participant in the rearing of his daughter.

“My life is better now because of my daughter, and I am trying harder to get an education,” said Spurlock, who lives with her mother and grandmother.