You never know what will get Rhode Island into the paper of record. Jess Bidgood reports from Cranston:

The members of the parent-teacher organization at Stadium Elementary School had no idea that the father-daughter dance they were planning last spring was, in fact, against the law.

But a complaint from a single mother about the event led to a renewal of a ban on such dances here, a move that has, in recent weeks, become a fiercely debated political flash point. …

It is not the first time Cranston has crossed paths with the civil liberties union. The city and the schools owe about $150,000 in legal fees after losing a lawsuit brought by the organization over a prayer banner that hung in Cranston High School West. The A.C.L.U. said displaying a prayer was inappropriate in a public school.