SCOTTSBORO - Jackson County Circuit Judge John Graham today ordered the Scottsboro City Board of Education to allow a gay couple to attend Scottsboro High School's senior-junior prom tonight.

Chelsea Overstreet, 17, a junior at the high school, and her date Lauren Martin, 16, a sophomore at the school, were initially told by school officials they could not attend because the school board does not allow students of the same sex to attend the prom together, their lawyer Parker Edmiston of Scottsboro said in a press conference this afternoon.

Because there is no state law specific to the issue, Graham cited a federal court ruling that prohibits public schools from barring same-sex couples from proms.

"It was a letdown" when they were told they couldn't go to the prom as a couple, said Martin's mother, Connnie Farrington of Scottsboro. She said her daughter had just bought a suit when a teacher told her about two weeks ago that she could not go to the prom unless she was with a boy.

But now she's ecstatic," she said, after hearing about the judge's ruling earlier today.

Both Martin and Overstreet attended the press conference. Martin was dressed in a tuxedo and Overstreet was in her prom dress. They were to have photographs made after the conference prior to going to the 8 p.m. prom at Scottsboro's Goosepond Civic Center.