Expect readers of this one to divide firmly between “the lucky bastard” and “o morals, where art thou?”. The prolific use of social media in myriad and increasingly creative ways took another turn recently, as an 18-year-old Minnesota student of Tartan High School, Mike Stone, utilised the power of Twitter to land a porn star to accompany him to his prom. Stone’s mother states that her son has special needs and he himself admits to having never gone on a date. So with prom looming, Stone did something ingenious: he sent around 600 tweets to porn stars asking them to accompany him to his high school prom. To make it worth their while, he explained that they would be repaid with “dinner, hotel and a personal massage”. Unsurprisingly, Stone’s peers fell firmly into “the lucky bastard” camp and chanted his name in the hallways, and “called me a legend. I have never been called that before.”
The porn star he succeeded in agreeing to accompanying him was 19-year-old Megan Piper, who said “I can make this kid’s dream prom experience come true and get a chance to go to prom. It was a win for both of us.” Piper explained in an interview with ABC News that her family moved state before her own prom took place, so she never went to one.
It wasn’t, however, his initial plan to try to land an adult entertainment star – he tried, and failed, to get a date with a girl from his school. While many schoolboys would be frustrated or upset with being turned down, it’s had a noticeable benefit on Stone. Aside from the aforementioned boost in popularity at school, an adult website used Twitter to offer to cover the costs of the event, including the price of a restaurant, limo and hotel suite. And while Stone offered to pay for Piper’s plane ticket to Minnesota from Los Angeles, a travel agency has stepped forward with an offer to pay instead, and strangers are contributing through the Internet to pay for transportation costs. All of which would mean that not only would Mike Stone make history of sorts, have a great evening, and be considered a “legend” by peers, but it won’t cost him a penny.
It seems, unsurprisingly, that the school isn’t too keen on the idea and instead falls into the “o morals, where art thou?” group – when they heard of what Stone had achieved, they banned Piper from attendance. School administrators wrote in a public statement that “[her] attendance would be prohibited under Tartan’s standard prom procedures and would be inconsistent with two school district polities. Those policies, among other things, refer to keeping the school safe from ‘activity that may be disruptive.'” Quite what this “disruptive” activity could be, lest the school think Piper can’t physically be around other people without wanting to engage in sexual activities with them, in which case Stone’s mother is right in saying “It’s not like they’re going to have sex there or make a movie” – although quite what may happen in the hotel room afterwards could be a different story altogether. In support for Stone’s rather incredible feat, fellow students at Tartan High School are considering starting a petition to allow Piper to attend the prom, as well as contemplating making T-shirts to support the couple being permitted.
None of this seems to be phasing Stone, though. Far from feeling despondent that his date may be banned from the prom, he and Piper are instead trying to find an alternative venue for the party and plan to invite all the students from Tartan High School. To conjure up more public awareness and support, Piper is trying to contact Ellen DeGeneres on Twitter to have her not only invite Piper onto her show as a guest, but also to host the alternative party.
