Condoms mailed for prom protection

May 9, 2005 - Associated Press

JEFFERSON, Ind. ? Someone has sent condoms to high school seniors accompanied with a letter encouraging them to be safe on prom night, causing some parents to chuckle, while others are upset, officials said.

In the past week, nearly all the students in Clinton Prairie High School?s senior class have received letters containing the surprise, said David Larsh, the school?s principal.

Accompanying the prophylactic was a letter, which read as a warning for the Class of 2005 to be safe on prom night, which was held Saturday.

It was signed anonymously, ?Clinton Prairie Alumni.?

District officials in Jefferson, 20 miles southeast of Lafayette, denied any involvement.

?This was not done with school sanction or approval,? said Superintendent Charlie Fink. ?We don?t even have an alumni association.?

The letters were addressed with official looking labels made out to the parents of each student and postmarked from Frankfort, Lafayette and Mulberry.

?Most parents are laughing about it, though we?ve had a few who were upset,? Larsh said.

More upset, he said, are the Clinton Prairie seniors.

?The seniors are perturbed,? he said. ?They think they?re getting looked at unfairly about this.?

Both the Clinton County sheriff and Frankfort post office have been told about the letters.

?I told (one parent) there probably wasn?t a whole lot we can do,? Sheriff Mark Mitchell said. ?I said, ?I can take the letter, but it?s not like we can fingerprint it. The postman?s handled it, and you?ve handled it.??