Holy prom suit, Batman!
A Grade 12 student at Cranbrook’s Mount Baker Secondary is seeing stars after finding out he’s not allowed to wear an expensive Batman costume to prom.
Lance Scott has been planning for months to ditch the tux in favour of wearing a $500 latex Dark Knight costume to his prom on Friday, June 28.
“I just kind of got the idea and I thought, well, why not? Everyone wants to be Batman,” Lance told The Townsman when he came into the office in costume to talk about the situation.
“I searched online and found the suit. It’s a collector’s edition. Then it just became a reality.”
The costume arrived a month ago, and Lance has taken it out for a couple of spins around the neighbourhood to test it out – getting a few strange looks in the process.
“I went for a walk in it yesterday and it was really hot,” he said.
Lance’s prom date is completely on side with his madcap plan, although she’s wearing a pretty ballgown, not a Robin costume.
“She was helping me push towards it, to actually do it. It’s pretty cool,” said Lance.
Trying to do the right thing, Lance talked to a teacher about his unique prom suit to make sure it would be okay to wear.
“She said the best idea would be to go to the committee so I have permission first, just to be safe. I don’t want to just show up and be denied,” he said.
But on Wednesday, June 5, Lance got bad news: a handwritten note from the parent grad committee, telling him he couldn’t wear the Batman suit to prom.
“I was quite disappointed,” Lance said.
“I can’t rent a tux now. It’s too late; they don’t have any more. Either it’s this or we have to go to Calgary to buy one.”
Debbie Funke, chair of the parent grad committee, said the 10-person group does applaud Lance for the eccentric idea.
“We discussed it at length and came to the conclusion that, while you want to give the kid credit for attempting to do something a little bit different, it just comes back to it’s a formal event,” she said.
“All the documentation that we’ve sent out this year to the kids and everything that’s been done in the past indicates that formal or semi-formal attire is required.”
Debbie said that Lance doesn’t necessarily have to wear a tux: any formal or semi-formal garb will be appropriate.
“Batman doesn’t fit into either one of those criteria,” she said.
“He can dress as Bruce Wayne and it would be wonderful.”