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CNN Live At Daybreak

Inspection of Underwear at High School Dance

Aired May 01, 2002 - 06:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, you've waited long enough for this story. In certain circles the thong is the thing to wear these days, but that doesn't include the school dances at a certain high school in Southern California.

That story from Steven Miller (ph) of CNN affiliate station KUSI.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I saw was girls walking in there like they were prostituting themselves, and like they were little hos. That's what I saw.

STEVEN MILLER, KUSI-TV REPORTER (voice-over): It was at a dance called a "morp" or prom spelled backwards where Vice Principal Rita Wilson reportedly demanded teenage girls entering prove that they were wearing appropriate clothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They asked me what kind of underwear I was wearing and we were required to lift up our skirts if we wanted to go in the dance to prove that we were in fact wearing the kind of underwear they specified.

MILLER: Many of the girls, says Diera McIntyre (ph), were required to lift up their skirts in full view of their male and female classmates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was really sad. Like this one girl lifted up -- they lifted up her whole skirt, she had a thong and all of these guys saw it and she cried. It was horrible.

MILLER: A junior at Rancho Bernardo High School, Aidy Anderson, who is also an assistant for Rita Wilson, says the inspection of girls' underwear was inappropriate, but the high school student says the vice principal was simply attempting to keep the dance clean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were just wearing these little skirts with nothing on under, these tight shorts, shirts showing their cleavage, their boobs popping out, everything. They were -- they were not dressed like they were going to a high school dance, they were dressed like whores.

MILLER: School administrators declined to discuss with us the accusations, but a meeting at the high school with several outraged parents ended with guarded optimism and with a demand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The counselor and the assistant principal who were doing this need to be dismissed.

MILLER: Jim and Kim Teal's (ph) daughter is one of the girls who reportedly was put beneath the investigational eye of the vice principal. They say there is something wrong here, that more needs to be done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am satisfied to this point. I want to make sure that something happens. I don't want it to just fade away.

MILLER: A view shared by some of the girls who say they did not pass the vice principal's inspection.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want the principal -- vice principal to do something about this and get fired or whatever because it was 100 percent out of line.

MILLER: Aidy, her assistant, says the vice principal is having a rough time following the outcry over the thong inspection incident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you lost your job because of something how would you -- or possibly, I'm not saying she did, you know how would you be doing?

MILLER: No word on what steps the school will take other than a printed statement from the school district supervisor saying there will be an investigation that action could follow.

Steven Miller, KUSI News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So there you have it.

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