There is more to this story than reported. These students we're trying to game the system. Don't qualify because of the rules to get your own prom tickets? Find someone else to go with and use their tickets.

There is no standards in this City. The students are allowed to do whatever they wish and the parents allow it. No fight to get the girl and education, but they can drive to CT to get a dress and rent a car. Sad set of priorities for these kids and their families.

Why should a kid who dropped out of her school go to her Senior Prom? Good for the school for asking her to show some sort of educational movement. Sadly she didn't or couldn't because she's been chilling for the past two years. Prom is a privledge of being a senior in good standing, and this girl clearly was not.

Prom is the only thing many kids care about, graduation doesn't matter as much as prom. So the school should use prom as a tool to keep kids focused and in the game. Stay in school, do what you're supposed to and you can go to prom. Don't and you won't.

Good job Northwestern for trying to have a standard. I hate to see the pressure people put on to have kids who haven't passed to graduate; at least we know one principal will stand his ground. This isn't a game....

Good to see Northwestern stand up and abide by their guidelines!

Tricky? Not the adjective I would have used, but maybe you are trying to stir conversation.

There is a culture of entitlement in the city schools when it comes to some students and parents (not all - it's the ones who act entitled that allow parent-blamers to paint all families with a crazy brush). Central office perpetuates this by assuming staff, and in particular principals, are guilty until proven innocent when it comes to accusations by families. One of the reasons that I would guess that these Northwestern students and families thought that the school would give in is that few principals are able to hold their ground because they don't think they will be backed up by central office.

In addition, because many principals choose to hide conduct violations because they don't want the stats to be held against them, students who should be suspending for things like physical contact with school personnel are back in class later that afternoon or the next day. The Baltimore City code of conduct is such a weak document that student who fight can be given a Level 1 response (classroom intervention - really?), so students know they can fight and know that "nothing" will happen to them.

From the start, there need to be stronger consequences for disruptive and inappropriate behavior - yes, the suspension rate would skyrocket for a semester or maybe a year because students and families are not used to schools being serious about holding to a standard of conduct, but once people began to take conduct seriously, learning would increase for all.

http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/cms/lib/MD01001351/Centricity/Domain/87/2010_11_PDFs/2010_11CodeofConduct.pdf

This whole incident is an example of not setting policy up front. Many schools have a prom date form that must be completed prior to the purchase of a prom date ticket. It requires the date to be vetted by an outside person and catches those students who try to work the system. It is not perfect but it does allow principals and class sponsors to catch a date like the one who Northwestern had to exclude. I do however agree that the Code of Conduct is a joke. Students will tell you to your face that all their parent has to do is call Central Office and get them out of whatever consequences they have been given. Incidents like this would not happen if students knew that bad behavior had real consequences. Won't happen anytime soon.

Northwestern had that, student tried to game the process. Even after the school said no she tried to get in. This stuff has been laid out since September.

I don't blame the school on this one, this is typical student/parent gaming of the system trying to get one over.

I AGREE WITH THE POLICY AND THE PRINCIPAL'S ENFORCMENT OF THIS RULE. IF YOU DROP OUT NO PROM ITS THAT SIMPLE. I WENT TO NORTHWESTERN ITS GOOD TO SEE A SCHOOL AND A PRINCIPAL WITH SOME BACKBONE SETTING STANDARDS.

I agree that this drop out should not be allowed to attend the school's prom and am very happy that the school and the system are backing this decision up. What I don't understand is why would someone who dropped out of school a) want to go to the prom anyway, and b) feel entitled to be able to go to the prom? I always thought of prom and graudation parties as a celebration of many years of hard work that are worthy of a party. Dropping out of school and doing nothing is not worthy of a celebration. Kudos to the principal and BCPSS for not allowing this family to work the system to get their way and hopefully this child will learn something about responsibility through this process.