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A once-secretive 鈥減rom draft鈥� tradition at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., has been thrust into the strobe lights, with defenders saying it鈥檚 a harmless way to organize dates and detractors saying it鈥檚 an offensive form of objectifying girls.

Boys reportedly rank girls and then get a draft position from a lottery to select a prom date from the pool. This year, students say, a junior boy paid $140 to improve his position in order to choose a specific girl, the Los Angeles Times reports, though it鈥檚 not clear to whom the money went.

The school鈥檚 principal, Kathy Scott, sent an e-mail to parents discouraging the tradition after The Orange County Register started reporting about the draft, the Register reports.

鈥淚 am sure that the intention of this 鈥榙raft鈥� is not to be harmful, but it may be,鈥� Ms. Scott wrote, according to the Register. 鈥淚t is not OK for any student to be objectified or judged in any way.... Prom is an important event in the lives of our students and I would hate to have to cancel it ... due to the negative actions of a few.鈥�

Scott did not return a Monitor call requesting comment.

The response should be much stronger, some experts on teens and gender issues say.

鈥淭he parents need to stand together, the schools need to stand together, and the girls need to stand together: This is utterly unacceptable,鈥� says Parry Aftab, a New Jersey-based cyberbullying expert and executive director of WiredSafety.org. 鈥淭he thing that鈥檚 most surprising to me is that the girls are going along with this. The fastest way to shut it down is for the girls to turn around and say, 鈥業 won鈥檛 be sold.... I鈥檓 worth more than that.鈥� 鈥�

One sophomore girl wrote to the Register that she participated in the draft, saying, 鈥淚t is all just a fun way to decide who you will be going to prom with. It is not meant to harm those who are picked and I do not believe that it does. It is not, was never, and will never ever be used to objectify the girls at our school.鈥�

But even if many individuals don鈥檛 object, such a practice can constitute a type of sexual harassment, says Catherine Hill, who has researched school harassment as a vice president of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in Washington.

鈥淭he idea that prom is about girls being attractive and boys deciding which one they like the best is not really the way we want to portray dating, and it does seem to objectify the women ... which can lead to dating violence at the worst, because you鈥檙e seeing your date not as someone you really like but as a prize that you won,鈥� she says.

Nearly half of middle school and high school students said they experienced sexual harassment in the 2010-11 school year, AAUW found in its study, Crossing the Line. Only 9 percent of students who said they were sexually harassed reported it.

Some posts on Twitter about the Corona del Mar draft for the June 7 prom have been removed, the Register reports.

The incident could turn into a good learning opportunity, but what the school does next is key, says Jennifer Powell-Lunder, a clinical psychologist in Westchester County, N.Y.

鈥淭hey need to sit down with all the kids and talk about what鈥檚 behind this,鈥� Dr. Powell-Lunder says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a crisis right now where young women are finding themselves in situations where they are doing what they need to do鈥� 鈥� including being coerced into sexual acts at parties 鈥� 鈥渂ecause they鈥檙e afraid they won鈥檛 be popular ... if they don鈥檛.鈥�

Another prom tradition that鈥檚 often based on gender stereotypes 鈥� the election of a prom king and queen 鈥� was upended recently in Las Vegas. Apparently capitalizing on her gender-neutral name, Skyler Galliher of Centennial High School ran for king because her friend was running for queen. What started off almost as a joke became a chance for her to stand up for girls鈥� rights to take on nontraditional roles, .

The prom dates of the two friends helped them campaign when some students, upset by a girl running for king, tried to add more male names to the ballot to offset Skyler鈥檚 votes, she told KVVU. She won the crown and received a mix of positive and negative feedback from students and the public.

She later that although she鈥檚 not gay, part of what motivated her was that a gay girl who had wanted to run for king was blocked from doing so by school officials.

What Skyler did stands in contrast to a common type of harassment known as 鈥済ender policing,鈥� or 鈥渟tandardizing what we expect to see in girls and boys, which can involve antigay behavior,鈥� Ms. Hill says.