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School board members in Fulton, Miss., decided to cancel the senior prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School rather than let a lesbian student take her girlfriend to the dance.

Now 18-year-old Constance McMillen says she fears retaliation from her classmates.

"The message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one," she tells the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

"A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it's really retaliation," she adds.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Mississippi has taken up McMillen's cause.

School officials in Fulton (a town of about 4,00 people in the northeast corner of the state) circulated a memo Feb. 5 telling students that same-sex couples would not be allowed at the prom.

In an ACLU press release, McMillen reports meeting with the assistant principal and later the district superintendent. She says she was told she could not attend the prom with her girlfriend or show up wearing a tuxedo.

And no matter what they did, McMillen says in the press release, she was told they would be thrown out if their presence made any other students "uncomfortable."

Mississippi ACLU officials gave school district officials until Wednesday to respond to their demands that McMillen and her sophomore girlfriend be allowed to attend the April 2nd prom. School board members reacted by canceling the event entirely.

The board issued a statement suggesting a private group host an independent prom. A private group would not be bound by the same anti-discrimination laws as a public school district.

Low blow, McMillen tells the Clarion Ledger.

"If they set it up privately, they probably aren't going to allow gay people to go, and there is nothing that you can do about it," she tells the paper. "I'm going to have to change schools or something."

Christine Sun, the ACLU's senior attorney for its gay rights project, tells the Clarion Ledger that banning same-sex dates violates McMillen's constitutional rights.

"We believe the law is pretty clear," Sun tells the paper. "The school just can't arbitrarily say you have to have an opposite-sex date to go to the prom."

While the ACLU rallied to McMillen's side, a conservative group quickly flocked to the side of the school district.

Leaders of the Liberty Counsel, a conservative social policy organization in Orlando, Fla., offered the district free legal services to the school district to fight McMillen.

"We view this as part of a broader picture," Liberty Counsel attorney Stephen Crampton tells the Clarion Leder. "It's not, sadly enough, about one young lady's desire to bring her date to the prom."

Crampton tells the paper that attempts to permit same-sex couples at school dances are part of a larger agenda to force legal recognition of same-sex couples. He adds that Mississippi still has anti-sodomy laws on its books.

"The district might be motivated by a desire to prevent the ultimate conduct that is presumptively illegal in this state," he tells the newspaper.

However, a 2003 Supreme Court decision struck down a Texas sodomy statute and ruled all similar state statutes are unconstitutional.

While McMillen may face tough times at school, she has the support of her family. Her grandmother Dale McMillen tells the Clarion Ledger that she supports her granddaughter.

"I've always tried to teach my children and my grandchildren that if you believe in something you need to stand up for it," she tells the paper.

Related story: Lesbian Student, ACLU Steps on School's Toes Over Dance Issue

As if the raging health care debate needed any more fuel added to its fire, a recent study in California indicates that the number of women dying from childbirth may be on the rise, having almost tripled in that state over the past decade, reports ABC News.

Maternal mortality is the term used in the yet to be released survey for women who die withing 42 days of giving birth, and is such a serious problem worldwide that the United Nations made reducing it to one of its eight Millennium Development Goals for 2015.

It's logical that impoverished countries where women have little access to modern health care would have high numbers of women dying in childbirth, but surely this country's state-of-the-art health care system performs admirably, right?

Do your children constantly nag you for their own cell phones? From the looks of it, many parents are giving in.

A survey from Mediamark Research and Intelligence, shows the number of kids with mobile phones has almost doubled since 2005, according to a report from The New York Times. And while 21.8 percent of girls and 18.3 percent of boys are gabbing on their own phones, the boys are quickly narrowing the gap -- it's about half that of 2005, The Times says.

So, just how old are we talking here? The market research company says most of the children with cell phones were 10 or 11 -- 36.1 percent of kids in that age range had phones [an increase of 80.5 percent], The Times reports.

According to the American Kids Study, cell phone ownership among children is up 68 percent in the past five years. Most kids use their phones to check in with Mom and Dad, but they're also playing games, surfing the Web and texting friends, too.

Hey kids, when you're stealing first base or making that game-winning homer, think about the nice people at Chesterfield who made it all possible.

That's right, Chesterfield -- the same smooth, great-tasting cigarette that put Grandpa in the iron lung -- could be on the back of your team jersey. Think of it as their way of getting you to smoke.

Or how about the Captain Morgan Rum Company sponsoring your team? Just drink responsibly, boys and girls.

It's not like the local pot grower is sponsoring the team. Alcohol and tobacco are both legal industries. So is firearms. The three of them go together like, well, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

What is wrong with a perfectly legitimate business sponsoring a local baseball team? Matt Carmel, a licensed gun dealer in New Jersey, demanded that answer when his application to sponsor a youth baseball team was rejected.

Let's see if I can explain this to him. Most of us, I imagine, think that certain things -- say alcohol, tobacco and firearms -- should not be advertised to or promoted among children.

Not that I have anything against arming kids. Some youngsters have parents who are military veterans, experienced hunters or otherwise practiced in the use of firearms. Growing up in Alaska, I owned a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle when I was 11. Still, I was always under the watchful eye of my father, a former Marine Corps marksman.

But even in Alaska, Smith & Wesson didn't sponsor our hockey team ( though things may have changed now that Sarah Palin has been governor.)

It's one thing to have your parent or other responsible adult teach you how to use a deadly weapon. It's quite another to promote firearms across the board for all kids, whether their mother is Donna Reed or their father is Al Capone.

Your Uncle Horace may give you your first little sip of brandy when you're 8. But that's a lot different from having Budweiser sponsor your chess league.
It's the same reason you don't see ads for chewing tobacco in Boy's Life.

You see what I'm trying to say, Mr. Carmel?

No, of course not.

No doubt you still see this as another symptom of our liberal, namby-pamby gun-hating society. Sigh. Where would political causes be without their persecution complexes?

You argue that a local convenience store gets to sponsor a team, and it sells alcohol and tobacco, so why not your business? You really can't see the difference between a store that sells those things as part of a much wider inventory, and your business, Constitution Arms?

"I want to advocate for the Second Amendment," Carmel says. "I think it's extremely important. It's important to show my kids that you stand up for what you believe. You don't take it lying down."

Bully for you. In that same spirit of freedom, say that Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo or the local ACLU chapter want to sponsor a team -- would you be as zealous defending their First Amendment as you are at defending the Second?

There are plenty of lessons children learn through sports. Adult activities should not be one of them.

An acquaintance who's due in two months just announced her choice for her baby's name. I immediately noticed the potential for a pun in the name, but I don't think she realizes it's there. Should we tell her, so at least she is aware and makes her choice with all the information, or should we just let it go since she has already fallen for the name?

- Trying to Avoid Ben Dover

A creative schoolyard bully can make a teasing nickname out of almost anything. Some names, though, are like giant bullseyes for taunts. It takes a strong kid to live with a name like "Benjamin Dover" or "Candace Barr."

We're living in a material world, so why not let the ultimate Material Girl help dress us for it?

Honestly, Madonna, what took you so long? The insanely fit music legend and longtime style icon is teaming with brand management firm Iconix Brand Group to form MG Icon LLC, finally bringing the queen of pop's fashion sense to the masses.

And you won't have to have Madonna's bank account to afford it, either: Although she's often seen in high-end designs from the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, these clothes will be found at Macy's.

"Joining forces with Iconix to bring my fashion ideas to consumers is very exciting for me," Madonna says in a prepared statement. "I look forward to working closely with [Iconix CEO Neil Cole] and his team to create and translate my vision and ideas for MG Icon."

The makers of the antidepressant drug Paxil are facing an increasing number of lawsuits alleging the medication causes birth defects, and one family has already won a settlement of $2.5 million, online investigative news site The Public Record reports.

Paxil's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, also has been sued by plaintiffs alleging the drug is addictive and can make people suicidal, The Public Record reports. To date, the company has paid out more than $1 billion to resolve the lawsuits. Paxil was approved by the FDA in 1992.

So far, only one lawsuit alleging the drug causes birth defects has been brought to trial. In October 2009, a jury in Philadelphia awarded the family of Lyam Kilker $2.5 million after it brought forward a suit claiming Paxil caused Kilker's severe heart defects.

There is a little girl named Layla Grace who died yesterday. She had cancer, and I followed this 2-year-old's downward spiral from the time she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma 10 months ago.

Layla Grace was not my neighbor. She was not my child's nursery-school classmate nor the daughter of a friend. She was not a member of my church or even a resident of my community. I do not know Layla Grace -- or her parents -- but her passing weighs on my mind nonetheless.

I know Layla Grace through Twitter. The child's parents were tweeting and continue to tweet about their loss, and blog about it as well. Some say using social media to reach out to other moms and dads during times of tragedy is a way to connect us all, across the usual dividing lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and geography.

I used to think so, too.



In fact, I wrote a piece on the topic last year, after a California couple shared their grief at the passing of their 17-month-old daughter and Twitter mobilized around them. They had been raising money for the March of Dimes at the time of the child's death -- she was born 11 weeks premature -- and by the time #Maddie was trending, which is the way you find a topic on Twitter, they raised more than $100,000 through donations from, literally, virtual strangers.
At the time, I called Twitter the modern version of a back porch, where friends and community members gathered with casseroles and comfort when tragedy struck. I believed that then, and in Maddie's case, it is still an accurate metaphor.

Now I wonder just how much tragedy we can absorb before we are immune to it. Layla Grace's journey to death, and her parents' overwhelming grief, is almost unreal. It feels like a play, or a TV movie of the week. My fear is that we will cross the line from compassion to consumption.



Layla Grace's dire condition attracted the attention of celebrities like Ryan Seacrest, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, all of whom helped the 2-year-old's mom in her effort to raise awareness of the child's condition -- stage four neuroblastoma, a cancer that is common in infancy and childhood. Their involvement in the story made it ever more surreal, and more and more like the plight of a fictional character.

I fear we are in danger of grief and loss becoming so abstract that it seems more like entertainment than tragedy. While there's no doubt that most people who reach out to families in need are genuine in their empathy and compassion, there is another side to that coin. In a sickening way, it feels almost trendy to glom on to what were once the intimate moments of tragedy borne only by families and their closest friends.That is one trend I will let pass me by.

I can't judge the parents of these children for needing to share their sadness. I cannot and will not pretend to understand the heart and mind of someone whose child has died or is dying. That is not my right.



Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe tweeting our family tragedies is the new normal, the Web 2.0 version of gathering around those who are suffering. What I do know is that I need to turn away from the screen when I see this kind of pain and agony scrolling by. Not because my heart is hardened, but because I fear it may become so.

High salaries, raises, promotions -- all sound like things that would motivate us to excel at our jobs, right? Only, it seems those things are more important to teenage boys than girls.

A recent poll conducted by Junior Achievement and financial institution ING finds the sexes differ greatly when it comes to job motivation and tools they need for successful careers.

Just 38 percent of girls, compared to 56 percent of boys, say they need perks such as promotions or raises to excel at work, and 40 percent of girls say they do not need additional motivation to succeed [22 percent of boys feel the same way].

When asked what would motivate them to take a less than ideal job, the poll finds 67 percent of girls would want a higher salary, while 74 percent of boys say more money would make up for a less than perfect gig.