Senate Committee Approves Father-Daughter Bill

Release courtesy the Legislative Press Bureau. Beyond Cranston, Matunuck Elementary School traditionally has a father-daughter dance as well.

A Senate Committee approved a bill that would allow school districts to have father-daughter dances and other gender-exclusive events, as long as comparable events for the opposite gender is offered.

The bill now heads to the Senate floor.

The bill, 2013-S 0012 – submitted by Cranston Sen. Hannah Gallo – would alter state gender discrimination laws, which Cranston school lawyers have said traditional father-daughter dances violate. A complaint from the mother of a Cranston girl triggered the review, prompting Cranston Supt. Judith Lundsten to cancel the district's dance.

“I understand that the superintendent was acting out of an abundance of caution when he announced the cancellation of the dances. I also understand the reaction of the parents of school children in the face of having a wonderful school tradition so abruptly cancelled," Gallo said.

“Events such as these dances are important traditions and we should be able to ensure that they can continue to be held without schools or school administrators running afoul of the law,” she continued. “I don’t believe the intent of these events was ever to be overtly discriminatory, but we all have to live with the language of the law. This bill, if approved and enacted, should ensure that these events can continue without weakening our resolve to oppose discriminatory activities.”

The four East Greenwich public elementary schools have non-gender-specific events for boys and girls, .  

Frenchtown School, for instance, holds "Girls Night Out" and "Boys Night Out" events, Principal Cheryl Vaughn said last September. The student is invited to bring a parent, grandparent or close family friend. At Meadowbrook Farms, according to Principal Neil Marcaccio, they have an event called a family dance. “It’s all inclusive,” he said.

The Gallo legislation — co-sponsored by Sen. Frank S. Lombardi (D-Cranston), Sen. Erin P. Lynch (D-Warwick, Cranston) and Sen. Daniel Da Ponte (D-East Providence) — proposes to add language to existing state law (R.I.G.L. 16-38-1.1) regarding “discrimination because of sex” as it pertains to schools. The proposed new language will allow schools to “provide activities for students of one sex, including, but not limited to, father-daughter/mother-son activities, but if such activities are provided for students of one sex, opportunities for reasonably comparable activities shall be provided for students of the other sex.”

Gallo said the reaction from the community, and elsewhere, that arose following the announcement of the dance cancellation “clearly shows how important these traditions are. This language will allow those traditions to continue without fear of violating the law.” 

Earlier in the school year, parents were notified that father-daughter and mother-son activities will no longer be held in Cranston Public Schools because school lawyers concluded the traditions violate state gender discrimination laws.

The action was triggered by a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union, said Lundsten. The letter was written on behalf of a mother who said her daughter was unable to go to the father-daughter dance.

Federal laws under Title IX allow father-son and mother-daughter events but state law is more restrictive, Lundsten said.

"We're following the letter of the law," Lundsten, a mother of two grown sons, said at the time. "We never thought it was harming anybody, nobody ever had any intentions of doing that nor did any parent organizations have any intentions of doing that."