Senator proposes legislation to save Father-Daughter Dances
Dee DeQuattro
ddequattro@abc6.com
Senator Hanna Gallo has proposed legislation that would help
Rhode Island school's preserve events like the “father-daughter dance.”
The father daughter dance was canceled at Cranston
Elementary Schools at the beginning of the year after the ACLU sent the school
superintendent a letter on behalf of a parent upset about the gender specific
event. The concern was raises that gender specific events at public schools
violates a proponent of the state's anti-discrimination law.
The legislation provides that the school can hold events
specifically for one gender as long as there is a similar event open to
students of the opposite gender.
The school committee discussed the issue at the end of 2012
and determined to ask the city's lawmakers to address the issue when the
General Assembly resumed session.
The bill was introduced in the Senate on Jan. 16 and has
been referred to the Senate Education committee.
