Did you hear the one about the school board that cancelled the prom?

This is on the verge of "old news", but I'm covering it because I'm fascinated by the decision-making process that went on, here:

JACKSON, Miss. - Constance McMillen didn't believe her Mississippi school district would really call off her senior prom rather than allow her to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

On Thursday, a day after the Itawamba County school board did just that, the 18-year-old lesbian high school senior reluctantly returned to campus to some unfriendly looks, she said.

"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year.'" McMillen said.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn't host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it violated students' rights. And the ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

See, if you are an administrator of any large organization, like a school system, one of your main goals should be minimizing discord. Proms are a given. One same-sex couple might draw a little attention--cancelling the prom draws a lot.

Best choice they could have made? Do nothing. Let her go. And if any angry, bigoted parents complain, the best possible answer was,

"And what were we supposed to do--cancel the prom? That's crazy! Ban the girls? That's discrimination!"

And let any parents who suck and want to discriminate be the heavies and try and talk their own precious snowflakes from going to a prom with gay-cooties--since that would be the part they play in real life. You know, being the discriminators, and all.

Instead, they freaked out and spited everybody just to deny a night of fun for a lesbian couple. This is a very teachable moment for schools in the future: The gay kids are still your kids, and they are just like all the other kids. The only difference is they are gay--deal with it.

And also, the ACLU and the AHA are heroes in how this is being handled (by people who are not the Itawamba School District, who should have figured out a way not to suck in the first place). The ACLU kept them from banning the young ladies--which would have been the very unfair thing the school board would have done in the first place. And the AHA is picking up the tab for actually holding the prom--another thing the school board could have easily done, but were too weirded out to do because of bigotry.

I hope Itawamba County learns from all this, and I hope all Itawamba county students have a really great time at their prom.