Crowning Touch : She’s Wife, Mother, High School Homecoming Princess

Like the other four senior princesses at Nordhoff High School, Veronica Velasquez will be escorted down a red carpet before thousands of spectators during halftime at tonight’s homecoming football game.

But unlike the other princesses, 18-year-old Velasquez’s cheering section will include a husband, Rony Velasquez, and a 3-year-old daughter, Melanie.

Velasquez--who fell in love, married and had a child when she was 14--is probably the first teen-age mother in Ventura County to be voted homecoming princess, according to school officials around the county.

She juggles housework, mothering, a part-time job and a full academic load at school. “I think I’m pretty much a simple person with an extraordinary situation,” she said.

Some of her classmates at Nordhoff agree that it is no big deal that one of their senior princesses happens to be a wife and mother.

“I don’t see her any differently at all,” said Jessica Mills, 16. “She acts just like we do.”

Nordhoff Assistant Principal Susana Arce said she did not even know Velasquez was also raising a child until the baby was more than 1 year old.

Velasquez and the four other senior princesses were chosen by schoolmates out of the 99 girls in their class. One of them will be named homecoming queen tonight, based on a schoolwide vote.

Velasquez, who maintains a B+ average, works on the school yearbook staff and has won an academic letter for her French studies.

Some of her friends and teachers say that although she fits in at the school of 1,055 students, she also stands out.

“A lot of people put her on a pedestal” because she appears so responsible and mature, said Mishauno Woggon, 17, Velasquez’s best friend since sixth grade.

About 6:30 every morning, when other teen-agers are being awakened by their parents, she’s rousing her husband, Rony, 23, a merchandise processor at Patagonia in Ventura, getting her daughter ready for preschool and herself for high school.

After school, she picks up Melanie, pays bills, runs errands, cooks dinner and cleans house. When Melanie is in bed, Velasquez, who plans to major in business at Ventura College next year, does her homework.

“The pressure at home is heavier than school,” Velasquez said. School “is where I see my friends. Here I can be a kid, almost.”

The routine doesn’t slow down on weekends, Velasquez works as a cashier at a local hardware store.

Velasquez said she would not encourage other teen-agers to follow her example. “I hope people don’t think it’s an easy thing to do,” she said, noting she gets “an unusual amount of support” from her husband and other family members. “I don’t feel this is something everybody could do.”