Teen Banned From Prom for Getting Her Hair Done

Shatara Shorter and her prom date.
Shatara Shorter was banned from prom since she didn’t attend enough classes that day, according to the school. (Photo: Courtesy of Shenika Dennis)

A teen who left school early on prom day to get her hair done was banned from entering the dance.

Shatara Shorter, a 16-year-old student at Northeast High School in Oakland Park, Fla., looked gorgeous when she pulled up to the prom with her date, Quaedae Robinson, on May 12. In fact, the teen’s mother had spent $1,000 on her prom look — a long, blue lace dress, a manicure and pedicure, false lashes, makeup, and an eyebrow wax.

With her mom’s permission, Shorter had left school early that day for a long-awaited hair appointment to entwine a gold chain through her bob.

However, when Shorter tried to enter the prom, a woman at the door asked for her ID. “They were basically waiting for me,” Shorter told Miami news station WPLG Local 10, which broke the story.

Shatara Shorter looking prom-ready.
Shatara Shorter looking prom-ready. (Photo: Courtesy of Shenika Dennis)

The couple was informed that while Robinson was welcome to enter, Shorter had broken a school rule that reads, “Students must attend half of the classes on the day of an activity in which they want to take part unless they have been excused or exempted from class by the school administration in advance.”

A spokesperson from the Broward County Public Schools district sent a statement to Yahoo Beauty that reads in part:

“The school’s students, teachers and staff worked extremely hard to make the prom a positive and memorable experience for all attending. During prom week, via multiple announcements, school administrators reminded students of the attendance requirement for participation in prom. The student and parent in this incident were reminded of this requirement prior to the student being signed out for the day. In addition, school administrators offered options to the family that would allow the student to meet this requirement by attending the latter half of the school day, which the family declined.”

However, Shorter’s mom, Shenika Dennis, has a different story. “I called the school one day before the prom and told them about her hair appointment,” Dennis tells Yahoo Beauty. “I was also never informed about the rule.” What’s more, Dennis says that while her daughter wasn’t the only one to leave school early that day, she was the only one penalized for it.

A true gentleman, Robinson declined to enter the prom because his date wasn’t welcome. “I was not going to leave my prom date — I came with my prom date, I asked her to go with me, she was one of the reasons why I wanted to go, so I wasn’t going to leave her,” he told WPLG TV 10.

The couple finished their evening with a drive to the beach and dinner at a restaurant; however, mom Dennis is transferring her daughter to another school, saying, “If the school had an issue with what happened, they can talk to me — not take it out on my daughter.”

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