Prom

Teens with of course be introduced to drugs sometime in their lives but, as any addiction or substance abuse expert will tell you many addiction and substance abuse problems start with teens begin pressured into using drugs by their peers. And prom is one of those social events where teens are often pressured into drinking and using drugs that if not for prom they probably wouldn't. I can see that your high school administration obviously cared for the well being of students, but sadly the majority of schools don't take the measures to avoid alcohol and drugs use within the prom. You also said " Breathalyzers were also used before and during this event to suspected drinkers which discourages any alcohol being consumed". The main word there is discourages, it doesn't completely prevent it and no amount of security will completely stop alcohol use at the prom and the inevitable result of people being pressured into drinking. You also said that paramedics should be available to deal with the inevitable drug use at many proms, but having paramedics at prom is basically telling parent that there will be drug use at the prom and that would definitely lead to a drop in attendance which would be a good thing. I also feel that the majority of alcohol and drug use takes place at the after party where there are no teachers and teens are free to do whatever they want and this is where the majority of people are pressured into drug use. The after party is also a direct result of prom and without prom there would be no after party and teens would be able to make a choice on drugs and alcohol without being pressured and later in life when they're more mature and can truly make an educated decision. I can't say what it's like in other schools but from my experience of graduation the gown was provided and buying the cap came was optional and if you want to buy it at a cost of $10 y were free to. I agree that the public schools shouldn't be responsible for paying for the prom. As my stat indicated only half of females spend over $400 dollars on prom so the other half would obviously spend less. But as your stat indicated it's still roughly $180-200 per person, that's money that they likely wouldn't have put into the economy if not for the consumerist backdrop of the prom. The fact is prom is an agent of consumerism in America, if you look at history you'll find prom was never around before the mid 1950's when the US economy exploded and consumers became the main source of profit for a large portion of the economy, like I said earlier prom evolved into an agent of consumerism and today it's become so romanticized that people are willing to put money blindly into the billion dollar corporations because it's a tradition. As you said that things like corsages are optional, it's pretty much an unwritten rule that you get your date a flower and buying a or renting a suit or dress for one day is also an unwritten rule of prom and many girls and boys both feel prom is the greatest night of their high school life and they refuse to wear hand me downs and in many cases they refuse to rent. It may help to boost the economy but, recent events have shown our capitalist economies are a broken system that makes people believe they need to spend money to help keep our society functioning while in reality the rich owners and shareholder benefit from that money you spent while the regular workers who you claim prom is helping see little to no raise in pay or benefits from prom sales. I do believe that the millions of dollars that teens invest into prom each year could clearly be better spend. Even if only a quarter of the money was used for a good cause such as donated to the United Way I'm sure the teens would have a better memory knowing their money went towards a homeless youth finding shelter rather than spend on luxuries and drugs for themselves. From my experience those who went were considered outcasts, but we clearly had a different experience regarding prom. I'm sure that at your school as well as almost every other school people who choose not to go don't have their decision respected by others. At my school the people who chose no to go to prom were called to the office and the admin tried to convince them to go by saying they'd never be looked at the same way again by their fellow student if they didn't go. And I'm sure that from your experience students who choose not to go were questioned by their fellow students, and that shouldn't happen as it shows people try and convince others to change their minds until they realize they can't which shows that fellow students don't respect the decisions of people who choose not to go initially.