Prom Vs. PI--Which Is the Better Bargain?

If there's a lesson to be learned from today's "Prom Bomb" story in the Boston Herald, I guess it's this: Depending on the school system, you're better off spending your money on a criminal background investigation of your daughter's boyfriend than on something as frivolous as, say, the prom dress:

A Cape Cod teen is all dressed up with no place to go after her high school snooped into her boyfriend’s past and banned him from the prom after learning he’d been convicted of pot possession.

“It’s like a smack in the face,” said 18-year-old Erica Eckert, one of two seniors whose non-student boyfriends were too bad for the big dance. “I’m honestly not sure what I want to do,” she said in a tearful interview last night.

Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School banned Eckert’s 19-year-old boyfriend from Saturday’s soiree after a criminal background check turned up a past marijuana possession charge, Eckert said.

The school started Criminal Offender Record Information checks this year for non-students going to the prom. Any date with a criminal past would be rejected, she said. A School Committee member last night said the school’s administrators - not the School Committee - approved the policy.

Now Eckert’s mom Kathy is out the $500 she paid for her daughter’s tourquoise dress, limo and makeup for the big night.

“It’s just a real shame that everything is paid for,” she said. “It’s really sad.”

I think $500 will get you a good day's work out of a private investigator, won't it?

As an aside, please don't think I'm heartless. I actually feel sorry for poor Erica and another girl in a similar situation, and I'm glad the ACLU is looking into whether the school has the right to do this or not. On the other hand, don't you love the fact that the Herald made this its FRONT-PAGE STORY today? I know they concentrate on local news, leaving the national/international scene to that other paper in town. But THIS was the biggest story in the Boston metro area today? If so, I'm sleeping better tonight. Things must be pretty peaceful out there.