Cross-dressing chaperone on field trip regrets stir

O'FALLON, Mo. -- A father who chaperoned a fourth-grade field trip while dressed as a woman has told the school district he regrets creating a stir, the school system's chief said.

"He went on the trip because his daughter asked him to go," said superintendent Dan O'Donnell of the Francis Howell district, which includes Castlio Elementary School fourth-graders who took the Oct. 18 trip.

"If he had known it would have caused this much of an uproar, he wouldn't have gone," O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell said he and the Castlio principal recently met with the father, who for years has cross-dressed while volunteering at school functions. O'Donnell said he did not ask the father to stop participating in his daughter's school activities. The father's identity has not been revealed.

Since that trip, some parents have pressed for the district to impose conduct and dress codes for parents attending school-related functions, though some board members have questioned whether it could do so constitutionally.

Donald Wescott, the board's president, said the panel met with its attorney Thursday and soon would announce its position.