Let students make their case

Some Carson High School students have been getting a civics lesson in recent weeks - a lesson in getting the runaround.

Their issue is the prom. In the course of world events, it's perhaps not that large - unless you're a teenager.

They don't like a rule restricting access only to CHS students. If they want to take a date who attends another school or has graduated, they've been told, they can't.

The students have been trying to get the school board's attention, without much success. They've been promised a spot on the Feb. 8 agenda, but then they've heard that before.

In fact, they thought they were on the last meeting's agenda. They showed up and found out, no, they weren't going to be heard.

Then one of the students, Ryan Costella, asked that he be provided with future board agendas. He was told he could check out the agendas posted publicly. That's fine, except that anyone who asks to get an agenda in advance is supposed to receive one. That's Nevada law.

After the meeting, a couple of students checked a posted school-board agenda and discovered it wasn't identical to the one handed out at the meeting. It had an extra item. Although the agenda had nothing to do with them, they wondered at this apparent lapse.

So far, the students have been bounced around as if no one wants to give them a straight answer. If school board members think the decision is up to Principal Glen Adair, they should nevertheless have no trouble hearing the students' arguments.

Actually, some of their arguments - such as why a dance like the prom is off-limits to outsiders, but other school activities such as sporting events aren't - seem like reasonable points to ponder.

Let the students have their say. Maybe we'll all learn something.