Prom-boy bill won’t go in the House today

Legislation provoked by James Tate’s suspension from the Shelton High School senior prom will not go ahead in the House today, as they have embarked on an afternoon-long excursion into the issue of in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants. That should eat up the hours before the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus’s annual Spring Fling tonight.

 Rep. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, and Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown are plotting an amendment on another education bill that could pressure Shelton High administrators into relenting under viral international interest in its overreaction to Tate’s imaginative, non-destructive invitation to a fellow student that he posted to the side of the high school.

 Perillo, whose district includes the high school, hopes that the viral suspension can be resolved before the Legislature can act.
“This does give us a little time,” Perillo said in an interview outside the House chamber. “My hope is that at the local level, cooler heads will prevail.”

First-term Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, would be the upstairs sponsor of the amendment, if the issue does indeed lead to General Assembly debate on the autonomy of school administrators.