School
adopts gender-neutral homecoming court, so there might be no ‘king’ or
‘queen’
Breaking with the tradition at many of the nation’s schools, students
at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School will adopt a gender-neutral
homecoming court this year, moving away from the longtime practice of
electing a boy as “king” and a girl as “queen.”
Students in each grade will vote for two classmates from a ballot of
finalists, with the top vote-getters crowned at the school’s homecoming
football game. It’s a change that means those honored at halftime on
Oct. 7 could include two boys, two girls, transgender students or a
boy-girl duo.
“It provides an opportunity for all students to be involved in
something that was exclusionary,” said Jacob Rains, president of the
schoolwide Student Government Association. “It is really not our job,
especially with a gender-neutral and transgender population at B-CC, to
tell people that boys have to be kings and girls have to be queens. Who
are we to put people into those categories?”
The change at the high-performing school in Montgomery County comes as
others across the country have begun to rethink how gender
classifications affect students. Many Montgomery high schools changed
how they assign graduation robes: Instead of using one color for girls
and another for boys, they have all students wear the same color.
[Full]
No king or queen? I think they've been rooked.
ReplyDeleteI’m a graduate of Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. A school bus picks up a hand full of BCC students on the corner near my house each school day. With the Montgomery County Government and School Board as liberal as they are, the only surprise here as that it hadn’t already been the case. It’s also surprising that anyone around here thinks this is news.
ReplyDeleteVoter registration is also rather surprising. As one of the chief election judges in my home precinct I’m given registration data for the primary that shows that the precinct is registered about 50% democrat, 30% Republican, and 20% Green party. In the most recent gubernatorial election the precinct voted 60% democrat and 40% Republican. The biggest surprise is that there are as many registered Republicans as there are. As was noted, the county is very liberal.
But perhaps most instructive is where the students in my neighborhood attend school. The Montgomery County School System provides an exemplary education. Schools in the district, including BCC, are regularly listed among the top schools in the nation. When I was a student here there were very few children in the neighborhood who attended private schools. That has changed. Many of my neighbors have pulled their children, who had been in the MCPS, and sent them to private schools. Busses from some of the most elite private high schools in the nation frequent the streets. In at least one case a student has been sent to board at an elite New England school.
What’s the reason these parents are pulling their children? I’ve heard that it was because my son/daughter wasn’t challenged. It’s fruitless to speculate on the thinking that’s going on here, but if I had to guess my neighbors are growing concerned over for what their children are being prepared.
How quaint we were in '69. We only had a home coming queen and she was a girl.
ReplyDeleteI remember girls. they were nice... sigh...
ReplyDeleteI wish I could travel forward in time to hear people say 'What the FUCK?' whenever they talk about today.
ReplyDeleteTim