Posted on 05/11/2011 12:02:41 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
SHELTON -- It began as a simple gesture. Shelton High School senior James Tate just wanted to make his good friend, Sonali Rodrigues, feel special.
So instead of the usual way of asking her to the senior prom, Tate and two friends went to the high school campus in the middle of the night and posted 12-inch tall, cardboard letters on the outside of the building -- at the main entrance.
The message that many saw when they arrived to school Friday, read: "Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to prom with me? HMU Tate."
She said yes.
"It took a lot of effort," said Tate.
He posted the letters, one at a time, in a "safe and thoughtful way" to avoid trouble.
But, it appears, that didn't work out.
Because of what he did, Tate can't go to the prom.
Tuesday, after meeting with his headmaster, Tate and his two friends were each given one-day, in-house suspensions and banned from the prom. Tate was told the administration felt what they did was a safety risk.
But the teen said he took every precaution when he posted the message early Friday, sometime between 1 and 3 a.m.
"I had one friend hold the ladder while the other put double-sided tape on the letters," he said. Tate said he also wore a helmet.
He was told another reason for the suspensions was that they trespassed on school grounds.
"I didn't enter the school at all," he said. And while the front gates to the school were locked, Tate said he and his friends were able to get onto the grounds on a footpath.
Tate said that, according to school regulations, if you get suspended after April 1, you can't go to the prom.
"I tried to appeal -- tried to just get a detention instead," he said. "I even offered to do community service -- like cleaning up the litter outside the school."
But he said nothing worked.
"Now I have a date for the prom, but can't go," he said.
"This is ridiculous," said Rodrigues. "James is one of my best friends and we are both good kids who never got in trouble. I've never been to the principal's office except to get an award."
Rodrigues was also called to the headmaster's office Tuesday morning. "They just asked me some questions, like would I still go to the prom if James couldn't," she said.
She will go, with a girlfriend, whose boyfriend has also been suspended for an unrelated incident.
"This is really upsetting," she said. "It's our senior year and we are supposed to have happy memories, not something like this."
Shelton High School Headmaster Beth Smith did not return calls for comment Tuesday. Superintendent Freeman Burr declined comment, referring all questions to Smith.
Anne M. Amato can be reached at 203-330-6496 or at aamato@ctpost.com.
An open footpath through the fence provided him access.
An open (unlocked) footpath could be construed as an invitation to come in, just not by vehicle.
Either way, the principal is doing wonderful in his rectal haberdashery.
FOXWOODS Casino nearby should give them a dinner at their best restaurant, tickets for a show, and send a Limo for them...great publicity for the casino..
Back in the 70’s the plastic cows, still in their cement bases, were removed from the front of the Hilltop Steak House in Saugus MA and put on the Great Dome of Building 10 at MIT.
Nobody knows who or how they did it. And nobody saw a thing.
school = restricted thought zone.
In my junior year the Sooooper Geniuses who were running our school planned the prom and after-prom in two different venues a 27 mile drive away from each other at opposite ends of the county. Cause teenage kids would never drink at their prom or anything.
Senior year prom was less eventful. I just discovered that my 16-year old date was screwing around with a 37 year old married cop, and the cop had a cousin who was a burglar, and eventually went to jail for helping his cousin burgle stuff.
My daughter and her boyfriend do not want to go to their prom. Smart kids!
Our country is going to hell. Creativity and initiative is surpressed and we are being forced in to lockstep servitude.
If his message was to a MALE student, it would have ended differently.
No problem. Just tell the “head master” you are a faggot...or a Muslim. He’ll probably rent a limo for you.
Lol!
You dirty ol’ man!
I had no idea kids still did that! I was a southern girl too back in the 50’s and it was really a “Big Deal” to get your initials along with your boyfriend’s put on a water tower!
I have a couple guesses, but they are all perverse, and this sounds like a nice kid.
ML/NJ
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools and school administrators (but I repeat myself) - Solon, the Lawmaker of Athens, d. 559BCE (not the last bit)
In texting, ‘hmu’ means ‘hit me up’ which is a request for further communication (e.g. phone call). If someone texts ‘hmul’ they’re telling you to ‘hit me up later.’
I don't know. Our small town is rockin'. My son was sent to in-school suspension last year. A female teacher came storming into the library where he was being held and yelled, "YOU'RE here?! Again?!" She then slapped him upside the head. :-) Sadly it wasn't exactly a negative moment. My son loved it. He loves the teachers that "act normal". (His words, not mine.) He respects them more, too. These are the teachers who he believes *really* care about him. These are the teachers who he works himself into the ground for.
Thanks, that was a new one to me. I must be an old fogey. HMU just is not a romantic way to close an invite, but I guess it worked with the girl. Not the school, though.
Humorless fool running that school.
Spot on. After seeing this kid on YouTube, I can tell you that he absolutely oozes “platonic friend”.
At my college (an engineering school), my senior year, a young genius with a rebel streak did a great prank with the help of some buddies. He covered the gold dome on top of the admin building with black paper, and added huge cardboard “ears” to make it look like a huge Mickey Mouse hat.
And he had also broken into the building and reprogrammed the computer that rang the bells in the old building. On the hour (and maybe half-our too?) it would play a short song on the bells. He programmed it to play the “Mickey Mouse theme song continuously!” (Well, until they turned it off after getting through the chain and padlock he put on the door).
I think he even turned himself in so he could take the decorations off (did not harm the building). And perhaps to claim his fame for his prank. He had some small fine or detention or something, and he wasn’t allowed at graduation ceremonies - but still got his diploma. I imagine some at the school were impressed by his abilities.
A few years after I graduated I heard where for a senior “prank” some kids blockaded one of the science buildings, plugged the drains, and turned on all the faucets, hoses, hydrants, etc. and did millions of dollars of damage.
Senior prank day was not allowed after that.
On 1 April 1998, hackers broke into MIT's main web site and altered the home page to proclaim that the Disney company had acquired MIT for $6.9 billion.
Later that day, after the proper home page was back in place, the MIT News Office issued a press release entitled MIT says "Disney buys MIT" hack revealed by low price (much too cheap).
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