There’s no such thing as a school dance without some drama to accompany it. This year, the controversy stems from more underclassmen than previous years are attending the function that is designed for juniors and seniors. While it is required that an underclassman must have an upperclassman date to the dance, some juniors have claimed that sophomores tried to attend the function without having a date. Others just do not like the idea of the younger grades going to Prom because it is not meant for them.

“I don’t understand why a sophomore would even want to go if they don’t have a date. I think it’s rude for them to practically invade our Prom when it’s supposed to be a special event for upperclassmen,” junior Melek Turkmen said. “I’m totally fine if they have a date though. It’s just disrespectful to the school’s policies.”

Underclassmen going to Prom isn’t a new phenomenon, but some juniors decided to skip the dance because of the large number of freshman and sophomores attending with Some saying Prom is meant for upperclassmen and that students from the younger grades should not be allowed to go to the dance. Sophomore Ahjaney Friar, who attended Prom with a junior date, says she does not see how freshmen and sophomores going to the dance would discourage juniors from attending.

“I don’t understand why they really care,” Friar said. “I honestly think it’s pretty petty for them to go out and complain to administration and tweet stuff on Twitter. I don’t see how sophomores going will affect them going or not. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Instead of going to Prom, some juniors opted to do other activities. Junior Sacha Laloo was originally planning on going to Andretti Thrill Park with a group of friends, but those plans fell through so she decided to travel to Miami Dade County for the weekend to attend a fair. Others, such as juniors Moriah Jones and Gavin Rushnell had dinner together.

“We didn’t really think going to Prom would be all that fun,” Jones said before the dance. “There’s just so much craziness involved with it, and it’s not really my kind of thing. So instead we’re going to go the Melting Pot and have dinner. I think we’ll have more fun at dinner than we would at Prom.”

Senior Noah Majeed said he thinks underclassmen are asked to Prom because after upperclassmen have spent five or six years with the same people, they would want other options for a date to the dance.

“I think in this school when you travel with the same people since seventh grade, by the time you are a junior or senior you kind of exhaust your options for a date and so the guys have to move down and ask someone in a lower grade,” Majeed said. “And by that time the girls in the grade know who they don’t like and sometimes they don’t like the boys in their grade so the guys have to take a step down and ask underclassmen.”

However, Majeed does not have a problem with younger grades attending the dance, just as long as he can have fun.

“I don’t really mind, just as long as they don’t get in the way of the upperclassmen having fun,” Majeed said. “As long as they don’t ruin Prom for everyone else, I think it’s cool that they’re going. Everyone who goes should have a good time. It doesn’t matter if they’re younger or older.”

By Alexa Carlos