9 Controversial Stories About Prom Dresses

In 2014, Clare Ettinger was excited to attend a prom for homeschooled students. She checked all of the dress code rules to make sure she wouldn't have any trouble and bought a cute, silver, knee-length dress that observed the event's "finger length" rule.

When she first arrived at the dance, an organizer told her the dress was too short, but Ettinger came prepared. She gladly demonstrated how the dress extended beyond her fingertips. The organizer agreed it was acceptable and let her in. That should have been the end of Ettinger's problems that night, but it was only the beginning.

Once inside, she was shocked to see girls in much shorter dresses than the one she was wearing. “I joined my group of friends, (there were six of us), and told them what happened, they were all appalled. We were also a little grossed out by all the dads on the balcony above the dance floor, ogling and talking amongst themselves.”

After a some time had passed, the same woman who stopped her earlier asked for a private word. She was told that some of the male chaperones had complained that she was dancing too provocatively, and her dress was too short. Ettinger argued that she hadn't danced, and once again proved that her dress met the proper length requirements, but this time, she was kicked out. Her friends left with her. All of the girls were promised they would receive refunds, but only Ettinger was refunded later on.

“I was told that the way I dressed and moved my body was causing men to think inappropriately about me, implying that it is my responsibility to control other people's thoughts and drives,” said Clare.

While not technically a prom dress, this modest frock worn to a Lone Peak High School Preference Dance was considered too risqué. Student Gabi Finlayson purchased the dress in Paris during a vacation with her parents and had it modified it so it would meet the school's two-inch strap requirement. Even so, a school official asked her to wear a shawl or coat to cover her shoulders if she wanted to stay at the dance.

Finlayson felt embarrassed and uncomfortable as she was forced to wear her winter coat throughout the entire evening. “Maybe instead of teaching girls they should cover themselves up, we should be teaching boys that we're not just sex objects,” said Finlayson.

This dress caused a particularly big controversy around the high school given that so few people found anything remotely inappropriate about it.

For some, the Confederate flag represents independence, small government, and Southern values, but others see it as an emblem of racism and slavery. Student Texanna Edwards learned the hard way that not everyone was comfortable with the image of the Stars and Bars when she tried to wear a dress that resembled the flag to her prom.

Edwards was denied entry by a school official who told her the dress was “offensive and inappropriate.” While she claims the schools decision was wrong, the school says that a teacher warned the girl not to wear the outfit two months before the prom and the teen ignored her advice.

The director of schools for Gibson County, Eddie Pruett, said the school has had many race-related conflicts and officials were worried the dress would only provoke the situation. "I feel like Hughes (the principal) followed legal precedents set by other court cases. Students have legal rights, and we don't infringe upon those. But we have to follow legal precedents, and if there is a reason to believe something could happen, we don't wait until after the fact to do something.”

Not all prom dress controversies circulate around a teen wearing an inappropriate outfit. In fact, one of them involves the pop star Rihanna, who mocked a custom-made outfit that a teen fan based on one of her red carpet styles.

Alexis Carter was a huge Rihanna fan and based her caped prom look on an ensemble the pop singer wore to the 2010 Echo Awards. Carter received a lot of compliments about her creation at prom and thought that would be the end of it. However, the pantsuit went viral on social media, circulating Twitter with the hashtag #prombat. That wouldn't have even been so bad if Rihanna didn't join in on the trash talk, comparing the girl's outfit to the Wu-Tang Clan's logo.

"I was very offended," Alexis said about the star's tweets. "Why throw shade when you wore the same thing? The pose was different, but the outfit wasn't." The star's childish behavior lost her many fans, most notably Carter, who came away from the incident saying "she doesn't love her fans like she says she does."

Plenty of girls are barred from prom for their choice of attire, but student Marche Taylor took things to the next level when she refused to go home and change into something that fit the dress code. In fact, her night to remember ended up with her being handcuffed and held in a police car.

It all started when Taylor showed up to the dance in a dress that was just a short skirt with two straps of fabric secured over her breasts. Taylor made no such attempt to meet the school's code, which allowed for one inch of the midsection to be shown and for skirt hems to be no more than three inches above the knee.

Despite blatantly violating the rules, Taylor refused to leave the dance to change into something acceptable and started making a scene. Eventually, police were called in to escort the teen out of the building. While no arrest was made, the angry student was handcuffed and forced to sit in a squad car until she calmed down.

For most women, wearing a dress that shows off cleavage is a conscious choice, but for particularly large-breasted ladies, wearing anything below the neck is bound to result in some cleavage. Unfortunately for busty teenager Brittany Minder, the fact that her cleavage is nearly impossible to hide ruined her prom night.

Minder chose a beautiful purple strapless dress, knowing that her school, Washington's Central Kitsap High, allowed strapless dresses as long as they did not display excessive cleavage. While the dress would have been fine for a girl with smaller breasts, school officials told Minder that she had to wear a shawl during the entire evening or go home because her breasts were exposed. “In my opinion, I feel it's because I'm bigger chested, and there's nothing I could really do about that,” Minder said.

The teen felt so embarrassed by the incident that she left after only an hour. “An important night of my life was ruined,” said Minder. “And there's no way I can get it back.”

Two years after Brittany Minder made headlines for getting into trouble because of her hard-to-hide cleavage, another student faced a similar problem at the joint Sci-Tech and Harrisburg High School prom.

Alexus Miller-Wigfall and her mother worked diligently to alter a floor-length red dress to comply with school guidelines. They added long sleeves to the dress and removed slits to make it less provocative. However, after showing a picture of the dress to school officials, it was still rejected. The duo then tried reducing the cleavage gap on the front of the dress, but with Miller-Wigfall's ample bosom, doing so entirely would ruin the look of the dress. The mother called the principal twice after the change was made, but she never heard back and thus, told her daughter to go ahead and wear the dress.

Things seemed to be going well at the dance. Miller-Wigfall was complimented by Superintendent Knight Burney and was otherwise never approached about the dress while other girls were asked to wear shawls over their dresses. However, the following week, the principal issued the teen a one-day suspension for her choice of attire.

"I couldn't believe it," Miller-Wigfall's mother, Alisha Sneed, said. "I don't see anything wrong with that dress. What do they want her to wear, a turtleneck?" When asked why she was being chastised, the assistant principal said, "You have more boobs than other girls. They have less to show."

While the suspension was eventually reversed, Miller-Wigfall and her mother never got a full apology or even an explanation as to why the teen was reprimanded in the first place.

Belinda Sanchez has been open about being a lesbian since she was a freshman and her school was always supportive of her. When it was announced that girls would be required to submit a picture of the prom dress they wanted to wear to the dance, Sanchez's choice – a tuxedo – was immediately rejected. The principal instead told her to wear something "more revealing" to the dance because he did not want it to turn into a "sideshow."

An infuriated Sanchez contacted the ACLU. They responded by sending a letter to the district reminding officials that forcing girls to wear a dress is gender discrimination and not acceptable under federal law. It was also a violation of Sanchez's First Amendment rights.

The very next day, the school district responded, reversing the principal's decision. "I'm happy," Sanchez said. "I didn't just stand up for myself. I did this for everyone who's in a position like I'm in."

If you think it's unconventional for a girl to wear a tuxedo to a dance, just imagine the difficulty boys face when they want to wear a dress. Texas student Tony Zamazal faced an uphill battle when he was told he couldn't attend prom in his favorite red dress and heels.

The young man had been increasingly drawn to wearing women's clothing to school, as he felt more comfortable in it. Despite this preference, the assistant principal told him that males must to wear tuxedos to the dance. The ACLU stepped in and sent the school board a letter explaining why the rules prohibiting boys from wearing dresses was unconstitutional, and the district quickly changed its tune.

"All I wanted was to wear a dress to prom because I wouldn't have felt comfortable showing up in a tux," Zamazal is quoted in a press release as saying. "I'm so grateful that my school has agreed to let me be myself on such an important night."