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School Board Members Detail Lack of Prom Experienceby KRISTEN ARMSTRONG, Staff Writer
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| The Sun Gazette recently brought readers
comments from three School Board members, detailing (and in some cases,
fuzzing over the details) of their prom nights. Neither School Board Chairman Libby Garvey nor the board's newest member, Sally Baird, went to their senior proms, but both wanted to share a little bit about their high school experience. Garvey: “I never went to a prom. I moved quite a bit during high school and attended four different schools in those four years. On top of that, I enjoyed learning, did well in school and was usually known as a ‘brain.' I made friends, but did not have a ‘boyfriend' and was never asked for a date in high school. I guess I was a late bloomer.” Baird: “I recall my high school years, particularly the last two, as being a time when I discovered and worked to understand how the emerging reality of my sexual orientation fit into the person I was. So, proms and ‘dating' - at least in the traditional sense - were not part of my teenage experience,” she said. “Although those years were not always easy, I look back fondly on those years as an essential part of the journey which led me to the very interesting and exciting opportunities which life has presented me as an adult.” And, here is a joint message from both of them: “For us, in different ways, the high school years were about learning who we were and being somewhat independent of the usual expectations . . . While the issue of going to the prom led to some discomfort for both of us, it was part of growing up and becoming who we are. Prom gives many students wonderful memories, but we suspect there are a number of students in Arlington who will not go to the prom for one reason or another and, in the end, we know it will not matter in their lives, either,” they said. |