Prom: Crime or Public Service

I was never a crazy participant in school spirit, and I didn’t generally go to the school dances or the football games. But I had been looking forward to my senior prom, I was a part of the committee, and in my sophomore and beginning of junior years spent considerable time planning, and organizing the class of 21’s Prom. Even over Covid, I advocated as hard as I could to keep our prom, but in the end, LAUSD canceled every large event in the district.

As the email went out that we wouldn’t be getting a prom and all of the money we worked so hard to raise was given to the class below us, my dad and I sat down to devise a plan.

I was already on the fence of rule breaker by this time, throwing parties and going out during all of the lockdown periods, and my house was known to be one of the places where people could gather without masks. In a crucial time of our lives, my parents did not want their children to suffer socially the same way that everyone else was, the importance of experience and expression could not be overlooked.

What was one more offense to my list of transgressions? After the donations of a local warehouse and the deposit for a DJ, the theme was set, and an underground prom was organized.

Much like in another town that didn’t allow dancing, Los Angeles became a town that didn’t allow anything, and for our Footloose-themed prom all I cared about was making sure people had a meaningful experience. And so, I didn’t require masks, I didn’t require kids to be from a certain school or of a certain age, we sold tickets online to cover the cost of food and decoration.

But as a result, I got canceled, some girl in my grade got upset that I was hosting an event that didn’t require masks, and she did everything in her power to get me in legal trouble both with the school and with the city. Even going as far as to email SDSU in an attempt to rescind my acceptance. To me this was the most evident disappointment with my generation, considering the event was voluntary and I encouraged those who felt the need to wear masks while in attendance to do so. As opposed to helping to find a way, to break what I considered to be an extremely oppressive school district and state policy, intended not to protect people but to spread fear and control, she only propagated what will become a generation hindrance to the creative minds of herself and her peers.

That being said, Prom is a cultural American experience and I was committing a criminal offense by attempting to provide that experience. By actively hosting a gathering of over 30 people, I broke one of the laws put in place by the state of California to help ‘stop the spread’ of covid. In an era where music, dance, and promenades shape cliches (but still important) high school students’ experience, it seemed to be the actual crime was by the government failing to recognize the damage it was doing to its generation of young people.

For my meager transgression to be the most upsetting event for some people, when there was a larger theme at play amazes me to this day.