Hannah Williams (right) is not allowed to take her girlfriend, Savannah Supski, both 16, to the Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School formal. Credit:Angela Wylie ''It made me very upset. I thought it was unfair so I didn't go,'' she said. ''I put a lot of effort into trying to fix things. I had a meeting with principals, looked through the Equal Opportunity Act, all my friends put posters up around the school and the teachers ripped them down. There was an easy solution; they just needed to let me go with my girlfriend.'' Hannah's father, Peter Williams, lodged a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission, alleging the school had discriminated against his daughter because of her sexual orientation. ''The school kept saying because it is an all-girls' school we want to make an event where they can meet boys in a social scenario,'' he said. ''That process is anachronistic and creates feelings of discrimination among girls who are same-sex attracted.''

After lodging the complaint in September, Mr Williams had a mediation session with the school, but the two parties were unable to reach a conclusion. The Williams family did not take matters further because it was becoming too stressful for their teenage daughter, who will complete her VCE next year. Mr Williams said the experience had forced his daughter to move to Swinburne Senior Secondary College, a ''more accepting'' school in Hawthorn. ''We made the decision that the best thing to do was to leave the school. The basis has been the whole sense of institutionalised discrimination,'' he said. ''They had a clear idea of why they ran the event, but the world has moved on. It's not the greatest time in someone's educational life to move schools.''

Savannah, now 16, is also moving schools to be with her girlfriend and was happy to hear that Swinburne Secondary College allows same-sex couples to attend formals together. ''I have been not very happy with private schools all my life and this was pushing it. It was a homophobic issue and I feel extremely discriminated against at the old school,'' she said. Sian Supski supports her daughter's decision to leave the school. ''The idea that there had to be a gender balance at the dinner dance seemed to be discriminatory. It was a very difficult time for Savannah but she's an amazingly strong young person and we are very proud of her.'' Mrs Supski said she was disappointed Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar did not adopt a more progressive approach to same-sex couples. ''It would have been a good thing for other girls who might be in a same-sex relationship and don't feel brave enough to come out, tell their parents and be in a school situation.''

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar principal Heather Schnagl said the event did not discriminate against same-sex couples and was designed to promote a co-educational experience. ''I don't think it's appropriate they feel discriminated against, and I'm very upset they feel that,'' she said. ''If we opened it up and said girls could bring another female they would all bring females; the policy is trying to create an event where boys are invited. We are a school that has an all-girls environment, and they are meant to invite guests, not partners.'' Dr Schnagl said the event was under review for next year. She said the students' ages had also been an issue. ''It's an event for year 11s and the student's guest was in year 10.''

Hannah said her classmates had taken younger males to the event and she was the only student asked to provide the age of her partner. ''They kept on making up excuses, and said everything was a problem for me.'' Roz Ward, co-ordinator of the Safe Schools Coalition, unveiled by the state government last month to tackle homophobia in schools, said the incident was a blatant example of discrimination. Loading ''It's a big issue for schools to be visibly supportive of same-sex couples and one of the most visible events of the year is the school formal or dinner dance. One of the six recommendations we make to schools is to allow students to take their same-sex partners or friends to their school formal and they should make it obvious that is the case,'' Ms Ward said. The Equal Opportunity Commission said it could not comment on the case.