Single She Stands : It’s Debating Day on Prom Proposition

Edison High School Principal Jack Kennedy feels a strong wind coming on. If it’s a hurricane, he wants to bend like a palm tree. If not, he wants to stand firmly behind his rules, so that he’s not swaying with every squall.

The issue before Kennedy is the prom.

This morning he will meet with Shawnda Westly, 16, a junior who is challenging school policy by asking to attend the junior-senior prom with girlfriends instead of a male date. She’ll be accompanied by her parents, Loretta and Perry, who back her all the way. Arguing the other side will be school activities director Bill Tangeman, who last week reportedly told Shawnda that tradition would not allow granting her request and that fights might ensue.

The school principal has already heard from Huntington Beach parents and students “vehemently” opposed to singles at the prom. But he’s unsure if they, or their opponents, are the prevailing wind.

“I’ll make the decision,” Kennedy said. “I want people to participate in that decision.

“It’s my opinion that proms are very special and that we should try and provide the kinds of proms that kids want. Historically at this school, kids apparently have wanted to have a couples-only prom.”

Out on the campus, opinions are mixed. Shawnda’s schoolmates Monday called the prom “a momentous occasion,” “extra special,” and a night anticipated and discussed for four years. For many, singles at the prom is an idea whose time obviously hasn’t come, and there is a good deal of pressure to keep it that way.

But some would welcome a precedent that would allow them to go to the prom without a date.

“It’s a night to be grown up,” said Duke Zander, a senior who will attend the prom May 30. “You should really have a date.”

Singles are more appropriate at sock hops during the year, said two female students.

“Aside from taking all the fun out of it, I just think it’s better with couples. It’s always been that way,” said Erica Shaw, 16, a junior who asked her own date.

“Everybody feels you should go as a couple, not by yourself,” said Jennifer Neville, a junior who is not going. If she went by herself she would feel uncomfortable; if she went with other couples, she would feel like “an extra wheel,” she said. Singles “should have a right to go if they want to, but why would they want to?”

Supporting the notion that singles might disrupt the traditional harmony of the Prom, Laura Hall said she would be upset if her date danced with a single at the prom.

Monday, the school received numerous calls from parents saying they would do whatever necessary to support tradition, said Kay Bergdahl, community resource coordinator for the school. In Bergdahl’s opinion, if single girls really want to go they should ask a brother or a cousin to take them, she said.

And she volunteered that sometimes unusual couples can fit in. When a father brought his daughter to her prom, she said, “it was kind of fun.”

On the other hand, several students said that if they could, they would rather go stag than miss their senior prom.

Bill Trujillo, 18, said he had been planning to rent a tuxedo and go stag with his friends who have dates. “It’s four long years of hard work. I want to cap it off with a good memory.”

The $40 ticket for two was prohibitive for Derrick Burton, 18, who did not ask a date. “I really might go if I was allowed to go by myself,” he said. “Then it could be fun.”

Gretchen Anderson, a junior, said she would also go with a girlfriend if allowed. She has already turned down several boys who asked her to the prom and is too “chicken” to ask “a certain guy,” she said.

Principal Kennedy said that most high schools have similar couples-only policies for the prom.

A nearby exception is Costa Mesa’s Estancia High School. It has allowed stags at the prom for nearly 10 years, said Art Perry, activities coordinator, who agrees that his school’s policy is unusual.

“As long as they follow the general school rules, it doesn’t matter if they come with a date or not.

“Our seniors go free to the prom. If someone wants to go stag, all they have to do is check in and get a ticket for free. . . . We’ve never had a problem. Kids like to see each other there even if they don’t have a date. It’s a social event.”

Last year, half a dozen girls came together dressed in tuxedos; this year, three boys came stag.

Couples-only rules are outdated, Perry believes. “Individual freedoms are more important. We’ve swayed with the times.”