All Lance Sanderson wants is to bring another boy to his school’s homecoming dance, but administrators won’t let him.

Sanderson is a senior at Christian Brothers High School, an all-boys Catholic prep school in Memphis. Last year, he says he spoke with an administrator about bringing a boy from another school to the dance. That administrator gave him permission, but has since left his position at the school.

Now, school officials have demonstrated a significant shift in attitude.

“I was sitting down talking to one of the current administrators over the summer, and at the end of our conversation, I mentioned it, expecting him to say the same thing. And he had a very different response,” Sanderson tells the Memphis Flyer. “He mentioned a [gay] couple in Texas and said I was a lot like this one person and said that the guy’s boyfriend murdered him. It was a little rough.”

The school cited a policy against boys from other schools attending social functions as its reason for denying Sanderson’s request.

The official policy reads: “CBHS students may attend the dance by themselves, with other CBHS students, or with a girl from another school. For logistical reasons, boys from other schools may not attend.”

According to Sanderson, that policy has been read over the school’s loudspeaker daily for the past week.

“The way they worded it is ‘for logistical reasons, boys from other schools may not attend.’ I asked about it in a meeting [Tuesday] morning, and they said they didn’t want guys from our school getting into disagreements with guys from other schools,” Sanderson says.

The school’s marketing and communications director, John Morris, said it would not be releasing any comment over the matter.

h/t: Raw Story