Girls barred from Utah dance for short dresses

(now that's just cruel and unusual. )

TOOELE, Utah — A Utah high school principal has apologized to dozens of teens who were turned away from their homecoming dance because their dresses were deemed too short.

Stansbury High principal Kendall Topham held four assemblies Monday, telling students the school's dress code policy was too vague to be properly enforced and vowing to hold a free dance to make up for Saturday's dress debacle.

Students and parents took to Facebook over the weekend to protest what they called a "homecoming spirit massacre." They posted examples of sparkly dresses an inch or two above the knee that school officials said broke the rules.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports as many as half the students who planned to go to the dance in Tooele (too-WILL'-uh) left after their friends were turned away.