Due to excessive conflict between students in previous years, drama counselors will be on standby at the Wabaunsee High School prom next weekend.
Between strenuously searching for the perfect dress, competing to snag a date and worrying about whether your crush will dance with someone else, prom season is a time of constant anxiety and anger, which has led to some relatively traumatic experiences in the past.
According to numerous studies cited on Instagram, a student’s mental health suffers due to the drama associated with prom night, or “proma.” The Junior prom committee has reached a solution.
Students at prom this year will have access to counseling to help them deal with any traumatizing proma.
“We’ve seen firsthand how mortifying prom can be. We hope that providing students with on-site counseling will reduce some of the long-term effects proma can have,” junior Kaytlyn Meseke said.
Sophomore Karlee Feyh, who attended Prom 2018 with senior Jarett Bolinder, is still recovering from last year’s proma. Jarett, who was sick on prom night, showed up in a suit covered in dollar bills. The entire way there, he blasted “Elvira” by The Oak Ridge Boys on a loop. During the pictures, he refused to take any with her. He just took them of himself in his money suit, and the ones Karlee’s family took, he cropped her out of. It was pouring rain that day, so, like a gentleman, he brought an umbrella. However, he needed all of it to protect his precious suit, so she just stood there, sopping wet.
“I’ve had nightmares about that day. He even had the audacity to eat his pasta with a salad fork. Every time a see an umbrella or hear a country song, I have panic attacks I really think I could have benefited from having some sort of support system there. Proma? More like trauma,” she said.
— Kendyl Bolinder, @BolinderKendyl
