No Gentiles Allowed?

This article's not hot off the presses, but it left me a little hot under the collar: Jewish Day Schools Ban Non-Jewish Prom Dates.

These are all private schools, so they're not breaking any law, but it still sounds questionable. As one mother in the article notes, shouldn't parents be the ones making rules about who dates whom? (And shouldn't Jewish Romeo & Juliets be breaking those rules?)

I've dated Jewish guys before, and I'm aware of the heavy baggage intermarriage has, but it is the high school prom, for heaven's sake. 99% of these kids will not get married to one another. They will probably all go off to college (where their dating lives will be relatively unmonitored-gasp!) and meet someone(s) there, who they also probably won't get married to. The average age of first marriage for American non-Orthodox Jews is 31. So what's the point of ruining some kid's prom because she's dating the Catholic boy next door?