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SHS mix-up causes headache for Shelton Schools

Last week, our very own Shelton High School was the victim of a nasty case of mistaken identity.

You may have already heard about it by now on TV, the radio or your favorite news website, but Shelton High School in Shelton, Conn., has become notorious for banning a high-school student from senior prom because of his creative proposal to his would-be date.

According to various news reports, the school argues that student James Tate trespassed on school grounds to tape up a prom date proposal to fellow student Son-ali Rogers. They subsequently suspended him and banned him from attending the high-school rite of passage.

In the days following the event, our very own Shelton High School

and Shelton School District received calls from people all over the country, district Superintendent Joan Zook said.

"They (SHS) have had dozens of calls," she said. "They were inundated."

The story, broken by national news media last week, got people so fired up that they didn't notice there were two very different Shel-tons popping up on their Google searches.

"They've probably never heard of either place - they don't know or they don't care," she said.

However, Zook said that most callers are so busy shouting that

they rarely realize they've called the wrong school before they hang up.

Seattle's King 5 News also came to Shelton Friday to do a feature on the story, she said.

Shelton School District spokesperson Linda Arnold commented on one particular call last week.

"Our receptionist had taken a call today and said it's a good thing that [a coworker] had happened to say to her that they heard on the news this was happening," Arnold said. "She couldn't even get a word in she started to say 'well, sir and he hung up on her."

Zook said she and members of the school board have also received numerous emails criticizing the district for something a school across the country did.

"I know personally I've had two dozen emails - they've been raging, very rude," she said.

While the calls have been a pain, and often laced with various obscenities, she said they haven't been too much of a burden.

"It's more of an irritation," she said.

The Connecticut school has since decided that Tate can go to prom after all. No doubt Washington's SHS will get some congratulatory calls this week.



Copyright 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal, Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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