EG Candidate Mark Co-Signed Father-Daughter Dance Letter To Cranston

Carolyn Mark, East Greenwich School Committee candidate, co-signed the now-famous letter sent last May to the Cranston School Department decrying a father-daughter-type dance at a public school there, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"updated-after-aclu-complaint-father-daughter-dances-no-more-in-cranston"} -->. Mark signed the letter, along with the ACLU's Stephen Brown, in her capacity as president of R.I. NOW.

The letter was in response to a mother’s complaint that the dance unfairly excluded her daughter, who she said had no adult male to accompany her.

“She called us to express concerns about an upcoming event that has been scheduled by the school PTO group. Although we do not expect anything to be done before that event takes place, both the ACLU and RI NOW share her concerns. We are therefore writing to request that you intervene to address this matter for future activities,” read part of the letter sent to former Cranston School Supt. Peter Nero and dated May 2, 2012. (Copies of the letter and the district's response were obtained from RI Future’s Bob Plain and are attached, right.)

At the time, an internal decision was made by Cranston to end the practice of father-daughter activities. The issue only became public on Monday, when Cranston candidate Sean Gately talked about it on WPRO’s Matt Allen Show.

Carolyn Mark, , responded to questions about her involvement in the Comments section of :

“When I learned that a single mom was feeling excluded from an event that, perhaps unwittingly, was framed in a way that would preclude non-traditional families from feeling welcome at the event, it concerned me. It also concerned me that the events the school was planning for the kids were stereotypical – a dance for girls, a sporting event for boys. In my capacity with RI NOW, I felt it appropriate to join with the ACLU in asking the school district to remind the community that school-based events need to be inclusive, which they readily agreed to do. And BTW, no school has to cancel its dances - they just need to reframe events so that everyone feels welcome,” she wrote.

In another comment, Mark wrote: “It’s not that I don’t think that fathers and daughters shouldn’t have opportunities to go to school dances together. I think that can be a lovely thing. But, I don’t think events should be framed in such a way as to make children feel uncomfortable if they don’t come from a traditional family and have no father to bring to the dance. That’s all. It matters what we call these things. I think East Greenwich has done a good job moving in the direction of being increasingly inclusive in these types of events.”

At least three of the four East Greenwich public elementary schools have non-gender-specific events for boys and girls. As mentioned in , Frenchtown has girls and boys night out events.

At , according to Principal Neil Marcaccio, they have an event called a family dance. “It’s all inclusive,” he said.

At