Skip to footer

Father-daughter dances banned: R.I. school says it's gender bias

Father-daughter dances and mother-son ballgames violate state gender discrimination law, says Rhode Island school official. "Family dances" to replace them.

|
The Christian Science Monitor/Andy Nelson
Father-daughter dances may be a tradition in the rest of the country – as seen here, President George W. Bush dances with daughter Barbara Bush at an inaugural ball in 2001 – but Cranston, R.I. says that father-daughter or mother-son events are gender biased.
  • By Associated Press

| CRANSTON, R.I.

School officials in the Rhode Island city of Cranston have ended their traditional father-daughter dances and mother-son ballgames, saying the activities are a violation of state gender discrimination law.

School Superintendent Judith Lundsten tells the Providence Journal (http://bit.ly/Pv6SzE ) the move came in response to a complaint from a single mother, who brought her case to the American Civil Liberties Union after her daughter wasn't allowed to attend a father-daughter dance.

Ms. Lundsten says school attorneys found while federal gender discrimination laws exempt such events, Rhode Island's law does not.

School Committee member Janice Ruggieri says she believes the school system can adjust and host "family dances" to accommodate all types of parenting situations.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Father-daughter dances banned: R.I. school says it's gender bias
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/0918/Father-daughter-dances-banned-R.I.-school-says-it-s-gender-bias
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe