Tangipahoa School Board hears prom, coach issues

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: May 7, 2008 - Page: 3B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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AMITE — The Tangipahoa Parish School Board heard a complaint Tuesday about a high school principal who did not allow a girl to bring a female date to her prom during the weekend.

Also, board attorney Chris Moody said attorneys for both sides in an ongoing school desegregation case are discussing a resolution of the Amite High School head football coach issue.

Moody’s comment came after the board met in closed session for about 30 minutes on the desegregation and other pending lawsuits.

The board took no action on the desegregation suit.

In mid-March, U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle ordered Amite High coach Mark Vining be replaced with passed-over candidate Alden Foster.

Lemelle found the board violated desegregation orders when it used a special hiring process that had been in place for decades to pick Vining because the school system never met staff racial ratios ordered in the late 1970s.

Under that process, which Lemelle has said is too subjective and needs to be revised, Vining was the top-scoring candidate. Foster is black; Vining is white.

Vining remains coach, Moody said. School officials have asked for a May 28 hearing on Lemelle’s decision.

Jeanelle Ard, 17, a Loranger High School junior, told the School Board that the principal would not allow her friend to bring a female date to the prom Saturday because the friend and the female date are of the same gender.

Ard told the board that when she asked about the decision, the principal, who is Billie Theriot, said it was made for protection from bullying, fights and riots.

Ard said students must submit forms if they take dates who do not go to their own school. Ard said her friend did not find out the request was rejected until a few days before the prom.

Ard told the board that gay students should have the same protections from threats as other students have had in the past.

Ard said the issue “is not just about gay rights” but rights for all who “should be allowed to be how they are in a public setting. Principals and teachers should not choose for you.”