District to pay lesbian's legal fees
Should send message not to discriminate, her lawyers say

Holbrook Mohr • The Associated Press • October 27, 2010

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20101027/NEWS/10270337/District-to-pay-lesbian-s-legal-fees

A federal judge ordered a Mississippi school district to pay $81,665 in legal fees and expenses in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian student whose prom was canceled because she wanted to bring her girlfriend to the dance.

Lawyers for the student deemed the ruling a victory, saying Tuesday that it serves as a warning to other school districts that discriminating against gay students can be costly.

Constance McMillen and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Itawamba County School District in March to challenge the ban on same-sex prom dates. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, also challenged a rule that prohibited female students from wearing tuxedos to the prom.

I've never understood how a school can be an "institution of learning" when students are only allowed the controlled "learning" that the school decides upon to include the inability for students to be themselves. An institution that prevents children and adolescents from learning about themselves, and who they are, and expressing themselves accordingly are clearly not "educational institutions." Prisons would be a more accurate term.