Skimpy Prom Dress Got High School Girl Arrested

By James Donahue

We hope this will be the end of a trilogy of improper arrest stories. First we have a guy arrested for running an unlicensed taxi service after he is coaxed into giving a police officer a ride home, then a man is arrested for having a machine gun after his semi-automatic rifle malfunctioned. Now a Houston, Texas high school teen is arrested because her prom dress exposed too much skin.

How much nuttier can people get? Here we have a world falling apart around us, massive tornadoes, earthquakes and typhoons killing people by the hundreds of thousands, and police officers in these small towns are hung up on trite issues involving questions of morality.

When we see images of Marche Taylor and her skimpy prom dress, we must agree she might be a bit chilly if that is all she was wearing when she stepped out into the night air, even in Houston this time of the year. But it is a dress, and for all practical purposes, she is covered.

The prom was held at the Marriot Hotel, and it was a gala affair. A photo was taken of Marche standing with a friend, whose dress also revealed a lot of skin but was not open in the midriff like Marche’s. Taylor was barred from entering the dance. The other girl got in just fine.

The school claims her dress violated a school dress code. Even after her friends found a way to cover the bare midriff, school officials still refused to let her in.

All right, we remember those silly rules handed down by school officials during our high school and college years. Dress codes were important, and for obvious reasons. Everybody knows that prom night is notorious as an event in which students indulge in heavy drinking, drugs and sex. So what is new?

The point to this story is that Taylor went to that dance dressed like some Hollywood glamour star, out to impress the world. She apparently lacked much guidance from parents and friends as to how to appropriately dress for a high school prom. 

After Taylor was turned away the second time, she asked for her money back. If students had to pay to attend a dance at the Mariott, it may have been a sizeable amount. In the end, she was escorted out of the building in handcuffs by the police.

The media is not telling us what led to the handcuffs. It was obvious that she was upset and probably did some loud talking. Did she get violent? Photos showing her being led off by police indicate that she showed no sign of being in an altercation.

This story, fortunately, ended well. Taylor was not charged and was released from police custody later that evening. She got lots of attention, and photos of Taylor in her controversial dress have appeared all over the Internet and even on national media.

She will be fresh out of high school soon, but this lovely girl may already be on her way to national stardom. If she uses it right, giving up her prom dance might have been worth the national publicity she received.