The Nation - News from Sept. 3, 1989

An appeals court upheld a ban on dances in the high school in the small Ozarks mountain town of Purdy in southwestern Missouri. U.S. District Judge Russell Clark had ruled that the nearly century-old ban on dancing unconstitutionally promoted the values of residents who opposed dancing for religious reasons. Most people in the area are religious conservatives. The school board had said it supported the ban not because of religion, but because of possible drinking and discipline problems and because it was an unnecessary expense. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled there was no unconstitutional mingling of church and state.