Prom is almost here for us upperclassmen, but if you pay attention this year to who is buzzing about it, it’s mostly seniors stressing about last minute details. If you were Micah, the perpetually held back senior from “Easy A”, you might be able to notice that this is the status quo every year. What exactly is the status quo for Niles North? Juniors do not, and should not, go to Prom.

Take a peak at the Facebook group for Prom this year, where girls show their dress picks to make sure no one is wearing the same thing, and you will see that the only people in it are senior girls and junior girls who are dating seniors. This is a perfect example of the stigma against juniors going to prom at North. The best way to make it clear to someone, or a few hundred people, to show you don’t want them somewhere is to not invite them to the traditional dress cat fight.

It has been this way since before any of this year’s seniors were in high school. I remember sitting in my freshman homeroom asking my two junior mentors if they were going and being met with shocked faces. I was met with a simple, “Juniors don’t go to Prom”.  I asked why, and the only answer I was met with was, “That’s just how it is”.

I asked why three years ago and I didn’t get a good answer. I ask myself, and others, why right now and I still don’t get a good answer.

So now I’m asking you: Why? Why shouldn’t juniors go to Prom? Is there even a reason, let alone a good one? If there is, why not just have a senior Prom with dates being any age. Considering there is not just a senior prom indicates that there really is no reason to not allow juniors, the other half of the upperclassmen, to attend freely.