The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) insists it is not “cancelling prom” as the promotion of a privately-organized end-of-year bash rests at the centre of controversy at a Cambridge high school.
On Tuesday, it appeared peace had been made after a concerned parent of a student at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School representing a group making arrangements for a prom party took issue firstly, with the decision to forgo a school-run prom party and secondly, with an inability to advertise the event to the whole of the student body at school.
“The girls were totally deflated,” said Barb Melanson in an interview with CTV News. “They were like, ‘How are we going to do this?’”
Melanson said once they learned of the decision from the school, they began planning a party; booking the ballroom at Bingemans in Kitchener for June 8, complete with a theme — A Night in Old Hollywood.
Serving as a spokesperson for this ad-hoc organizing committee made up of students and parents, Melanson describes frustration with school officials for impeding efforts to reach out to students to inform them there would be a prom to celebrate the end of their high school years.
“It’s been very challenging,” she said. “It’s very stressful for me personally, but for the kids — to watch them go through, and basically it’s like somebody slamming the door in their face. Every time they turn around, another door closes.”
Without school sanctioning, Melanson says neither posters nor announcements were allowed within the school to promote the event.
“These poor kids are being cheated of everything, and I just really think it’s important that they get the opportunity that all the other kids have had in the past,” said Melanson.
WCDSB RESPONDS
In an email to CTV News, the director of education, Tyrone Dowling, indicated three of the WCDSB’s five high schools have had student/parent-run proms for several years prior to the pandemic.
The remaining two high schools, St. Benedict and St. Mary’s High School, previously held school-run proms; however, last year parents and students at these two schools took over organizational responsibilities as the WCDSB looked to maintain provincial public health recommendations.
The WCDSB released this statement in response to CTV News queries:
Since the onset of the pandemic, Waterloo Catholic District School Board has followed provincial guidelines dictating the cancellation of traditional events, both hosted by and affiliated with the school board for the safety and wellbeing of our community. As these guidelines have lifted, some of the traditional events our students look forward to have been able to return. One of these traditional events hosted by the community for our students has been prom.
At Waterloo Catholic DSB prom has been hosted by parents and/or students, for three of our five schools. This has been a practice that has predated the pandemic. Upon returning to traditional events last year, seeing the success of the other three schools, the remaining two schools chose to allow students and/or parents to host and operate the event. As with the other proms, these events were not sanctioned or sponsored by either the school board or the schools.
Considering the success that the school communities had in last year’s return to the event, both schools and school boards supported the decision for the events to remain a student/parent run activity to ensure consistency for all the schools in our district.
MOVING FORWARD
As of Tuesday afternoon, an email from the school addressed grade 12 students and guardians, alerting them to the prom party being planned and providing a QR code and online link to the organizing page for the event.
Melanson calls it a positive development and has already seen an uptick in students registering for the event.
“They’re going to walk in on the red carpet,” said Melanson. “They’re going to have lots of things to celebrate that night.”
For Melanson, the night is a chance to make memories and calls it an important milestone moment for many young people.
“I can remember years ago when my nana was in her 80s, and we were talking about prom, and she lit up,” said Melanson. “If someone in their 80s remembers what a milestone event it is, then it must be important.”
She adds seeing her daughter glow as she chose her blue sequin gown is the kind of memory she hopes students and their parents can make as they celebrate high school’s last hoorah.
“When she came out in the dress, her whole face, her whole body just shone — this is the dress for her,” said Melanson.
Melanson hopes to see close to 600 students attend the event in June.
