Yet another teen was banned from prom for a very confusing reason
We are totally in love with high school senior Mireya Briceno’s prom dress: a backless, cobalt blue, polka-dotted gown. It’s beautiful, gorgeous, unique, classy, and makes her totally stand out. We’d snatch up any opportunity to wear it, TBH. Seriously, LOOK AT IT:
She looks so gorgeous and elegant, and it’s a very classy dress. However, when Briceno, who goes to Muskegon High School in Michigan, showed up to prom last Friday, her special night was cut short after just one hour when the school told her to go home.
“Last night I got kicked out of my own senior prom because my dress was too ‘revealing’ on my sides? [sic]” Mireya posted on Facebook the next morning. “When I know I saw so much worse.”
However, the confusing thing here. . . a list of rules shows that the school DOES permit backless dresses, according to The Daily Mail. In fact, Mireya’s mother, Connie, had gone over the rules beforehand and determined that the dress was fine. A visible midriff would have been a violation, but as Connie explained to Fox17, “When you look in the mirror, there should be no skin showing around the midriff area. When her arms were down, you couldn’t see any skin.”
Um, OK — so what was the problem, then? Connie and Mireya don’t know, because when Mireya was kicked out, the school provided no explanation. “They asked her to stand up and turn around,” Connie told Fox17 , “so she turned around, and they simply told her, ‘You’re in violation. You need to go home.’”
Her dress, according to principal Brad Perkins, violated dress code rules, and he’s been greatly praised for his decision. . . though he didn’t know why it was determined the dress violated dress code rules since he hasn’t seen the dress himself, according to MLive. Oh, and when Fox19 presented Perkins with pictures of Mireya’s dress, he refused to look at them, saying, “What would be the purpose of looking in the past?” Sigh. Can we PLEASE not use blind ignorance as a weapon against young women?
“I felt she was classy and elegant,” Connie told MLive. “She was perfect.”
Initially, Mireya was allowed into the dance because she was wearing her boyfriend’s jacket, which school officials thought was knowingly deceptive, as Fox19 notes. Not like it gets cold on April evenings in Michigan or anything like that.
Luckily, Mireya’s boyfriend, Dereko, has a prom coming up in a couple of weeks, so they’ll have a second chance — but it doesn’t undo what her school did to her. “I’m sorry Dereko [sic] we didn’t get to dance nor take a picture, but we sure had people talking,” Mireya said on Facebook. “My senior year of prom was ruined, but I still have his in 2 weeks. I felt pretty, I had my amazing boyfriend on my side & that’s all that matters.”
Way to stay positive, Mireya! You looked absolutely radiant, inside and out — and we are so glad you have a second chance at prom. We sincerely hope this serves as an eye-opener to schools to maintain their rules consistently, and to stop policing the bodies of young women.
