The Killjoys Who Want To Control Everything

High school proms are a major event. I think they have gotten a little out of hand since my day, but even then they were a major event. Today they may include hotel rooms, limousines, and hotel ballrooms. We had the high school gym and my future husband’s ’53 Ford convertible. That was it. I do think that high school proms have gotten out of hand, but to me that is an issue the parents need to have to courage to deal with.

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about a new policy at Lakeland Regional High School regarding the senior prom.

The article reports:

Students and parents at a New Jersey high school plan to protest a new policy banning limos and party buses as acceptable transportation to and from the senior prom, CBS New York reported this week.

Under the new policy, Lakeland Regional High School prom-goers will be required to take the bus to the once-in-a-lifetime event on June 4.

“We have students from various. . . socioeconomic backgrounds, “ Superintendent Hugh Beattie told ABC 7’s Eyewitness News this week.

“And we wanted to provide an even playing field for all students,” he added.

The superintendent said the group decision by the administrative team was “based on the concern over the safety of all our students and in providing equity for all students so that they all could enjoy a shared ‘prom experience’ despite socio-economic status,” according New Jersey 101.5.

Students will reportedly pay $15 for a 45-minute, chaperoned bus ride from the Wanaque, New Jersey school to Rockleigh Country Club.

Parents and students have objected to upending the traditional pomp and circumstance of renting limos for transportation to the prom.

The article concludes:

“A prom is a school-sponsored function, a school district has the authority to make rules concerning the event,” New Jersey School Boards Association spokeswoman Janey Bramford told New Jersey 101.5.

The school does have control of the event, but do they have control of how the students arrive and depart from that event?  It is unfortunate that they are using that control to seriously curtail the fun for the seniors. I can’t imaging climbing into a chaperoned bus in a prom gown and being excited about it. I would also think that renting limos or party buses might avoid some of the consequences of teenage drinking and driving (which unfortunately does happen during prom season).

This ruling is a perfect example of how socialism works–since not everyone can afford this, you can’t have it. What about the kids who worked all year to save money for the limousine? Aren’t they entitled to the fruit of their labor? High school seniors are old enough to understand that not everyone has the same amount of money. Seeing kids in limousines at the prom might encourage them to work hard to become successful. I think this decision by the school board is ridiculous. If parents don’t want their kids to have limousines at the prom, they need to band together with other parents to discourage the practice. I think the school board is overextending their authority when they attempt to control how the students get to and from the dance. Again, would you want to climb on a school bus in your prom gown?

Anti-Semitism In England

Yesterday Scott Johnson at Power Line posted a story about protests that took place in London last Thursday when the Israeli Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta, participated in the annual eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts known as the Proms. The concert by the Israeli Philharmonic was disrupted to the point that the BBC cut off its live broadcast.

The New York Times reported:

…the repeated disruption of its (the Israeli Philharmonic) concert at Royal Albert Hall in London on Thursday night by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, to the point that the BBC cut off its live broadcast and played recordings of the evening’s program instead. 

Stephen Pollard in the UK Telegraph had a slightly different take:

But Thursday night’s events can only be understood in the context of anti-Semitism. When have there been similar protests against “violations of international law and human rights”, as was chanted on Thursday, by any other country? And this in the middle of the Arab Spring, when genuine protesters for human rights are daily risking their lives in Syria against a murderous dictatorship.

If, indeed, this was a protest against the actions of the Israeli government, rather than against Jews, where have been the similar disruptions of performances by Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Iranian or any number of other nations’ musicians? What about disruptions of British national companies, in protest at British human rights abuses? To pose the question is to answer it. There’s little doubt in my mind that this was an action motivated specifically by the fact that the performers were playing in the national orchestra of the Jewish state. 

If the Jews are the canary in the coal mine, we need to pay attention–the gas is rising. As the day nears when Palestine will unilaterally declare itself a state–regardless of the fact that it has never adhered to the Oslo Accords, we can expect to see more accusations against Israel and more anti-Semitism under the guise of supporting human rights. This is the same kind of upside down logic that has been used in the past to persecute Jews. We need to our own research on what is happening rather than believing everything we see in the news.

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