Report Recommends IL. Schools Drop ‘Prom Queen/King’ to be More Inclusive
A new report on inclusivity for students is suggesting Illinois’ public schools drop some common terms, such as "homecoming queen" and "prom king." It comes from The Affirming and Inclusive Schools Task Force who released its report recently.
The recommendation is to make an effort to keep Illinois schools inclusive and comfortable for all in 2020 and beyond. WREX details some over arching goals of the report -
The report issued a series of recommendations for Illinois’ K-12 schools aimed at removing language and titles that transgender, non-binary and gender-nonconforming students may find exclusionary.
Many of the suggestions for Illinois’ public schools were reiterations of state and federal law and recent court decisions affirming the rights of the students in question.
Others included showing teachers ways of addressing groups of students that don’t connote traditional genders or associate behaviors with a particular gender.
So what does that have to do with prom and homecoming? It comes down to the king/queen aspect of school dances. WREX says -
One of the recommendations included eliminating terms such as “homecoming queen” and “prom king” and replacing them with "prom royalty" or providing school awards to any set of two students instead of “best male/female.”
You can read more about the proposal report here.
More From Rockford's New Country Q98.5
