`Prom dress addressed: Student allowed to wear 2-piece gown`

Veronica Porterfield, a junior at Sharon High School, has received the stamp of approval on her prom gown.

Veronica had been told she would not be permitted to wear her two-piece powder blue dress, which exposes about three inches of her stomach, but not her navel. The dress also has a split up the side.

The dress had been banned under a school dress code that prohibits students from exposing their midriffs.

Veronica and her mother, Marlene, had protested the decision at a school board meeting saying the mid-March decision to ban ``inappropriate'' dresses from the prom was too late for many girls.

Mrs. Porterfield told the board she consulted the school's dress code before paying $277 for the dress and did not think it violated the nonspecific code.

At that time, the board said it would stand by the administration's decision to ban the dress and also told other girls to have any questionable styles approved by the administration.

Board president the Rev. Lora Adams-King said the decision to permit the dress was made by the administration and prom committee advisers.

``One of the things she and her mother kept stressing was that it was not as revealing as the one pictured in the paper,'' she said. ``And apparently it was not.''

Veronica raised questions about the dress after a similar gown was pictured in The Herald for being banned from the Farrell High School prom.

``We don't have any language in our current dress code policy against a bare midriff because this is an area that we are just rewriting,'' Mrs. Adams-King said. ``But it will be in there.''

Mrs. Adams-King stressed that if a dress is not appropriate it still will not be permitted at the prom. School officials are relying on the good judgment of parents or prior administration approval, she said.

``Most parents want to see their child go somewhere tastefully dressed,'' she added.

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Updated April 29, 1997
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