Possibilities to create prom alternative
Photo submitted by Jenna Yingling
Seniors Jenna Yingling, Annika Brown, and Catherine Monty before prom 2019. The girls were very excited for the big night.
May 1, 2020
As COVID-19 rips throughout the world, the cancellation and delayment of events are an everyday occurance. However, the cancellation of one occasion is devastating teenagers around Minnesota. One of the most looked forward to events every year, prom, is cancelled. All year, juniors and seniors in high school have been waiting for this special date to come. They bought dresses, tuxes, corsages and boutineers, planned dinners and party buses. Now the date is here, and their plans are cancelled.
Many students are wondering if an event special to seniors will be planned. After all, not only have they lost prom, they could possibly lose graduation as well. Student council has been left with the task of providing ideas for an alternative event.
Senior member Jenna Yingling explained that right now, Student Council is at a pause in plans. Yingling said, “To be honest, I’m not sure if there is much that we can do about prom. Since it isn’t looking like we’ll go back to school, I doubt large gatherings will be allowed either.”
Junior member Ethan Vargas agrees with Yingling, saying it could be hard to plan an event in place of prom.
When explaining his reasoning, Vargas said, “Even though I could probably come up with 10 different ways to do a social event that resembles prom, I think there would be a lot of pushback from the student body just because you can’t really replace prom with anything else.”
However, next year’s Student council President Mara Doe said she sees a possibility for an alternative.
“If quarantine lasts longer, we could do some sort of online prom event. Maybe we can encourage people to dress up at home and send in pictures, or something similar!” Doe explained.
Doe also said another option could be a, “drive-by prom, where everyone dresses up and drives around.”
You can’t really replace prom with anything else.
— Ethan Vargas
Either way, Doe says one thing is for sure, “There are plenty of unknowns, so as we learn more we can work on making a fun prom replacement in quarantine!”
On top of not knowing if a large gathering for seniors will even be possible, there is the uncertainty of if people would even be interested. If prom is not possible, whether or not there is a replacement depends on if people would want to go.
Vargas says it is hard to know. “Our student body tends to be more traditional, meaning you just want the classic American high school experience,” Vargas explained, and while he says there is nothing wrong with that, it could be hard for student council to fulfill expectations.
Student council has decided to hold further planning until more information about this summer involving the pandemic is released. While the council would love to host a prom or alternative event later this spring, it is posing a hard task to plan.
“The student council has not discussed specifics of alternatives as we do not know how these restrictions will play out into the summer,” Vargas explained.
Although many seniors are troubled by missing out on the last few big events of high school, they are also excited to start a new chapter in their lives.
“I’m attending Iowa State University next year which is exciting for me,” Yingling explained. “I’m sad about missing the rest of the school year and events I was looking forward to such as prom and graduation, but I’m excited for what’s next!”
