Articles labeled: francisco velasco

Jessica Pope, an 18-year-old who attends Glenbard East High School in Chicago’s western suburbs, was allowed to bring her 21-year-old boyfriend to prom last weekend. The catch? They were only able to be there for ten minutes. School officials were concerned because they didn’t want someone in attendance that can legally buy booze for other students.

[Pope’s boyfriend Francisco] Velasco, a Marine stationed at Fort Lee, Va., received permission from his superiors to fly to Chicago for the weekend just for the dance.

Pope said that after dropping off friends at the Signature Room in Woodridge on Saturday and stopping briefly inside to say hello, school officials backed off and allowed the couple inside — if only for a few minutes.

School Principal Robert McBride shook Velasco’s hand “and went out of his way to say he wasn’t getting let in not because of any disrespect for the military,” Pope said. “It was just policy. Then another dean told us we could come inside for a bit and have some fun. I figured we would get a half-hour.”

But Pope said that within 10 or 15 minutes, McBride and several other school officials were at her table urging the couple to leave the banquet hall immediately while they were in the middle of dinner.