NO:
The worst thing about high school is that the school pretends to treat students like adults. While a majority of the students here at CHS are not adults or even close to being adults (students who occupy the B hall), there is a population of students that are capable of making their own decisions.
Going into senior year, there are several events that stand in the distance, events that are designed specifically for seniors and that are important to seniors and those close to them. Graduation is probably the biggest one, but other events include senior start, Sunrise/Sunset Dinner Dance, senior ball, mother/daughter tea, father/son barbeque, and senior party.
Seniors want to celebrate these events with the people they love: mothers, fathers, family, friends and boyfriends or girlfriends, and usually they can. There is an exception that does not only apply to the senior class and their senior year. The school has set an age limit for all guests who attend senior ball or any school-sponsored dance.
No one over the age of 20 was admitted as a guest of a senior into the senior ball. The main reasoning for this, along with the breathalyzer, was to prevent substance use at senior ball, but honestly, what person of legal age to buy alcohol and going to a friend’s senior ball, would bring any kind of alcohol? The rules about alcohol are clear and have always been, so anybody could be invited and would know not to bring alcohol or come intoxicated.
Issues with alcohol aside, students should be allowed to bring whomever they wish to prom. Several students at CHS may be dating a man or a woman who is over the age of 21 and may not wish to go with anyone other than that man or woman.
Students may not even be dating an older person to want to invite him/her to prom. Older friends, due to circumstances like illness or absence, may not have been able to attend their prom and have been given a chance to go to someone else’s.
Students should be able to decide who they want to bring to school dances and that decision should not be swayed by regulations that the school puts on the age of guests.
YES:
For a moment, imagine going to prom amongst friends… Now imagine attending prom amongst friends and twenty year old adult … Clearly, something is not right.
The age limits concerning students attending school-sponsored dances or proms should remain. The current policy states that no one over the age of 20 can be admitted into these events. This allows sophomores in college to attend. Besides the reason of having a significant other in high school, there is no reason for people 21 and over wanting to attend high school events.
Most want to enjoy their high school years once, maybe even twice, but people 21- and- over should have better things to do than attending an event with a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds.
With becoming 21, the law legalizes this age group to consume and buy alcohol. With allowing this crowd to attend high school events, this creates an even bigger risk to exposing high school students to alcohol. The administrators have enough issues to worry about during prom, other than 21-year- olds sneaking in alcohol. This creates a large liability issue for the school and the school district if people were to get hurt or if they were to sneak in alcohol successfully.
What it comes down to is that adults and students in high school have no reason to be mixing as peers. If adults 21 and over are genuinely concerned with attending prom, than that’s more of a concern then them not being able to attend in the first place.
That is simply creepy for someone of that age to have a deep desire to spend an evening with high schoolers. A lot of high school students would question their desire to attend a dance or prom. By inviting an older age group to these events, this would make a lot of students and parents uncomfortable. Students should feel safe and relaxed in an environment of a high school-sponsored event.
If someone is 21 and still wanting to attend prom, then some may question his or her motives.