JESSICA CEJA is a student at Anderson Valley High School where the school’s Junior Prom was held last Saturday night. Jessica, a gregarious girl popular with her classmates, had previously bought a single ticket to the dance for $15, but when she arrived at the door of the gym where the Prom was held, Andrew Settlemire, a teacher at the school told Jessica she couldn’t come in because she was not dressed “appropriately.” It is true that some kids were togged out in tuxes and formal dresses, but it is also true that some weren’t. Boonville is Boonville, not the Marin Town and Country Club. Jessica was dressed as she always dresses, in a baggy sweatshirt and trousers. Formal dress is expensive, and Jessica wears what she can afford. Barred by the resolute Settlemire, Jessica asked for her money back which, after some back and forth with Settlemire, was finally returned to Jessica by Superintendent JR Collins. It wasn’t the money so much as it was the humiliation. To be turned away at the door of a Junior Prom isn’t an easy rejection for a teenager, but that’s what happened to Jessica.
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