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LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE GONNA HAVE ONE HELLUVA PROM NOW

Prom offers flood in for Mississippi students


By Chris Joyner, USA TODAY
JACKSON, Miss. — An advocacy group for gay students in Mississippi said it has been fielding dozens of offers from around the nation to hold a prom for students of Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Miss.
The Itawamba County school board Wednesday canceled the school's planned April 2 dance after a lesbian student challenged the district's policy against same-sex dates. As news of the board's decision spread across the nation, Matthew Sheffield of the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition said his office was flooded by people looking to help.

"We have so many people willing to donate money, resources, time," he said. "We are trying to figure out what we are going to do."

Among those is New Orleans hotel owner Sean Cummings, who offered to transport the students by bus from the northeast Mississippi city and host the prom at one his properties free of charge.

Film director Paul Saltzman offered to provide a screening of his movie Prom Night in Mississippi as part of the entertainment at a private prom for the students. The documentary, shot in 2008, is about the first racially integrated prom at Charleston High School in North Mississippi.