Utah girls barred from homecoming dance because of short dresses www.privateofficer.com

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TOOELE, Utah Oct 4 2012 (AP)- A Utah public high school principal has apologized to dozens of teens whowere turned away from their homecoming dance because their dresses were deemedtoo short, in what parents and students called a "homecoming spiritmassacre."
Stansbury High principal Kendall Topham held four assembliesMonday, telling students the school's dress code policy was too vague to beproperly enforced and vowing to hold a free dance to make up for Saturday'sdress debacle.
As many as half of those who arrived at the dance ended upnot going in after their dates and friends were barred from entering. Amongthose turned away: Homecoming Queen Erica Alvey.
The school's handbook states that dress for formal eventsshould be "at or near knee length," leaving room for interpretation.
"They told me that it was showing my knees so it wastoo short, and in order to get into the dance I had to put on leggings,"Alvey told the Deseret News. "So I did, and I got back in the dance, butthat was before I realized that this thing was going to turn into such a bigissue."
Students and parents took to Facebook after the dance toprotest, posting examples of sparkly dresses an inch or two above the knee thatschool officials said broke the rules.
Some parents, including Michael Johnson, went to the schoolSaturday night after their children called to say they couldn't attend. Johnsontold The Salt Lake Tribune he doesn't have a problem with the school imposing adress policy, but he said it was too vague.
His daughter wore a black dress with ruffles ending about aninch above her knee. The family had paid to get the dress lengthened before thedance to make sure it would meet the school's requirements.
Several students wore their homecoming dresses to classMonday in protest of the dress code. They also signed a petition to have thedress code changed to be more specific with input from the student body.
Meanwhile, Topham apologized to students Monday.
"As much as we want to have a certain level ofappropriateness and reasonableness, there was never any intention for people toleave heartbroken and disgruntled and confused and frustrated," he said."So that apology needed to happen and it did happen."