Senior prom is one of the last opportunities to make memories with the classmates that you have ventured through high school with for the last four years.  

However, students at Montgomery County High School in Georgia cannot interact with all of their classmates since they will have a prom for black students and separate one for white students.

The two proms are not sponsored by the school but are rather planned and executed by students.  They are simply a tradition that no one has taken a stand to change.  

This is especially shocking since this particular high school only has 60 students in its senior class which would not form a large group of kids for one prom let alone enough for two.

The high school administrators have a responsibility to step in and forbid the trend of segregated proms because they are not necessary and it does not build a sense of community between classmates.  

It does not encourage students to learn more about colleagues of different backgrounds or races.  In this southern school, the discrimination goes past the two proms and is prevalent in the daily school activities.  Black students hang out in one area while white students are only found in a completely different area of school grounds.  

Students who partake in interracial dating are often ridiculed and called various derogatory terms.  

At Hoban, we are lucky that this type of discrimination is not common and not only can we go to school with people of all different cultures, but we are not discouraged from hanging out with them on the weekends.  

With the election of President Obama this fall, strides have been made in breaking the discrimination barrier.  If the nation can seemingly make this large step in bracing diversity, certainly high schools should be able to as well.  Most people believe that the days of segregation have passed, but in actuality schools such as Montgomery County High School can simply not break the habit.

I could not imagine not having my entire senior class at prom.  Luckily, I do have the opportunity.  So seniors, on May 1, let’s get all dressed up and start snapping those pictures that will last forever.  But most importantly, let’s be thankful that every single member of the Archbishop Hoban Class of 2009 is welcome to attend.