During a prom committee meeting last Tuesday, February 23rd, the members, made up of people from the community, came to a consensus to ban freshman from prom this year in response to an incident with a freshman the past year.

The prom committee should revoke this decision because a sum of upperclassmen are dating freshman and planned to take them to the prom, not all freshman are immature, and an individual’s behavior does not and should not affect a whole different group.

Firstly, with the mixed classes of high school, it is only natural to assume that upperclassmen, some of which are seniors, could be dating freshman. Using this same logic, one can see that said senior/freshman couples really only have this one year to have a high school prom together. Now, for arguments sake, take the freshman’s wants out of the equation and see only the senior’s perspective. In all reality, prom is more for the senior class than any others; after all, it is their last year. The seniors dating freshman have now been deprived of their “perfect prom night” because their dates have been taken away! Seniors are not to blame for an immature act done by a freshman last year. They shouldn’t have to go to prom alone or not at all because of this. It’s their senior prom- a once in a lifetime experience. That should not be taken away simply because they are dating a freshman. Yes, one could put the blame on them for choosing to date a freshman, but that is easily disposed with the idea that one does not choose who they decide to like. Thus, thinking on all of the upperclassmens behalf, their freshman dates should not be banned.

Secondly, a single person’s actions does not mean the whole group will behave in that way. There have been little to no problems with freshman years past.. The people that carried out these acts should be the only one’s with consequences. This means a whole group, a different group for that matter, should not be carrying that person’s consequences. High school is supposed to prepare students for the real world and the workplace. In the workplace when an employee intentionally messes up, they are fired, not the rest of the employees. So, if it’s true that highschool is supposed to prepare students for the real world, they should back this up with real world truths and show the students that they have consequences to THEIR actions.

Lastly, freshman are not automatically immature simply because they are freshman. That term is often coined on that group because of their age. However, this is not true; many freshman are quite capable of acting in an orderly, mature manner. If one was to take out all the classes that had a few immature people, there wouldn’t be a prom. Freshman are perfectly capable of being mature. For example, before even entering high school, an incoming freshman has to go from basically having their teachers hold their hands through every course to setting out an entire high school blueprint. That takes a level of maturity that they had to achieve. Additionally, many are involved in extracurricular activities that carry them to other schools and there has been no behavior problems there, which shows their ability to be mature once again. Also, a large majority of freshman are mixed in with sophomores and upperclassmen in their everyday classes. Using the logic that the prom committee used, with no disrespect to their decision, they would have to segregate the whole school in hopes of depleting freshman immaturity. This would take away from the diverse learning settings and carrying back into the real world point, not let them experience anything out of their freshman bubbles.

Those opposing state that freshman are too immature to attend prom, however as stated above this is not true and plain unfair to the upperclassmen and freshmen alike. Some students are offering the idea of a spring dance, but that doesn’t even compare to prom in the least.

To conclude, the prom committee should revoke their decision to ban freshman because the sole actions of an individual should not deprive others of the prom night they deserve.