Prom deems itself the be-all-end-all of high school: a night where students can celebrate the fact that, despite four years of stress, homework and tears, they finally made it—they survived. The freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors all have reason to celebrate, yet only a quarter of the school has an invite.

The CHS senior prom, which is May 18, is a day many seniors have been looking forward to since the start of high school. But why should they have to wait four years for an end-of-year dance? Georgetown Prep, McLean High School and Georgetown Day School all have a junior and senior prom. Wootton has a senior prom, as well as a junior banquet. However, at CHS, we do not have a junior banquet, a junior and senior prom or an inclusive end-of-year dance. We only have senior prom. CHS prom should not leave students feeling left out.

Including other grades in prom would mean higher ticket sales and more overall money to put towards the event. This would translate to a nicer venue, better food and better music, giving students the best prom experience possible. If we are going to spend our youth looking forward to prom, we should make it the most extravagant night that we can. Simply making the CHS prom a junior and senior prom could do all of this.

The monetary benefits of allowing juniors to attend prom would relieve monumental stress from the SGA, who constantly worry about fundraising enough money so that they will not end up hosting prom in the school’s cafeteria. Not to say that the cafeteria is not every high schoolers dream prom venue, but having prom in the same room that students go into to get a plastic fork is not exactly the ideal dance.
Certainly, many students would feel that adding another grade level to prom would make the event less special and more like a second homecoming than a prom. Prom is supposed to be the last hurrah in a student’s high school career; inviting other grades to enjoy the experience would strip it of its original purpose.

However, adding another grade level would accomplish exactly the opposite. The more people attending prom, the less the dance seems like a 6th grade middle school mixer. Seniors are usually not the only grade level at the event, anyway; many seniors take students in lower grade-levels as their dates.
This may be the result of putting so many expectations on one night alone. The fact is, senior prom might not live up to its acclaimed fame, but if prom was for seniors as well as juniors, students would get a second chance.

According to a 2014 YouGov survey, 59 percent of Americans think prom is overrated.

Attending prom as a junior would allow for students to really do the dance right as a senior. Their whole prom experience would not be dependent on the time frame of a couple hours.

We need to consider the addition of juniors at the CHS prom, because not only does an invitation benefit them, but it also benefits the seniors, the SGA and the overall experience. For a school that prides itself on including all, a prom with only 25 percent of the student body is just not acceptable.