News

PROM 2017

By: Emily Brown

487/400 Words

Photo credit: http://schools.stlucie.k12.fl.us/fpc/prom/

Fancy dresses, flowers, and party buses mean only one thing. Prom is right around the corner. On June 19, 2017 Columbia High School (CHS) is having their senior prom at Westmount Country Club at 7:00 P.M.

This year seniors had to pay $90 for their ticket. The cost of prom is based on how much money the class can raise prior, and essentially, the more money raised, the cheaper the prom ticket. This is only the brunt of the expenses. With dresses and suits, party buses, after prom, after prom outfit, shoes, and corsages/boutonnieres, prom can total to a lot of money. Due to this many people look for cheaper outfits to balance out the cost of the party bus and tickets. Emily Davenport ‘17 said, “Lulus.com is a very popular website for prom dresses because the dresses are reasonably cheap, but can sometimes be sketchy.”

While Davenport didn’t get her dress from Lulus.com, Amal Omer ‘17 found her dress there. “Lulus is great because everything is so cute and reasonably priced,” said Omer but she added, “the only issue I had was that there are a fair amount of other people wearing my dress in different colors.” The problem with popular brands is that there is going to overlap and no one wants overlap on their senior prom.

To try and solve some of the “twinning” looks there is a Facebook group where girls post what dresses they are planning on wearing to prom. “The Facebook group is the best way to make sure you don’t get the same dress as someone else,” Davenport said. She also added that most people don’t like when others wear the same dress and the Facebook group resolves all of those issues.

To go along with dresses there is an infamous unwritten rule in the CHS Prom Handbook. Because there is only a senior prom at CHS, underclassmen have the opportunity to go if they get asked by a senior. This unwritten rule basically says that underclassmen have to wear short dresses to prom and if not you are seen as disrespectful towards the seniors. While there are only a handful of people who strongly believe this, it puts underclassmen in a slightly more difficult situation. Hannah Tuohy ‘18 is going to prom with a senior friend. Tuohy had a hard time finding a short dress that she liked. “In the end I bought a long dress because I really liked it, but I am getting it hemmed so it is shorter because I don’t want to cause any problems at prom,” Tuohy said.

Despite all of the little things, Prom is expected to be a hit just like it is every year. The night will end at 11:00 P.M. unless you purchased an after prom ticket, which is not included with prom, in which case the night will end the next morning.

New Dress Code Reform
By: John Bell
518/600 Words

Photo credit to fortwayneschools.org 

It is that time of year again: warm weather, keeping hydrated and… student-garment regulation.

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. - On May 17th, 3:41 pm, Principal Elizabeth Aaron sent out an email informing Columbia High School (CHS) of the new dress code. Aaron said “Over the past two years, the CHS, SOMS, and MMS communities, including parents/guardians and students, met with district leaders to revise and align dress codes at the three schools”. Aaron emphasized that a focus was put on creating a dress-code that addressed all students rather than one that was geared towards gender-specific clothing articles. Attached was a formal document of the dress code, which consisted of seven specific points on students’ attire.

Although the new dress-code attempted a few progressive changes, one line in particular was met with outrage from many students, particularly female students: “With warmer weather upon us, please bear in mind that students should have underwear on at school. Underwear should not be visible,” Aaron stated in the email. Liana Runcee, ‘17, said, “When I heard about specifically the part that demanded that students wear underwear it seemed so absurd that I didn't bother [reading the email]. I knew I wasn't going to follow it anyways.” Number two in fine print of the dress-code puts restrictions on:

Pants that sag below the natural waistline. Underwear must not be visible.
All tops should have straps and midriffs should not be visible.
Skirts, shorts, dresses, etc. should cover skin as appropriate for a school and
professional setting and cannot be see-through.
This applies to all students. 

Meredith Olin, ‘18, said, “I think it was specifically targeting girls who's bra you can see through their shirt and that shouldn't have been a main concern for the administration when there are bigger problems.” Harry Ehlers, ‘18, said, “I think it included some code words that were aimed to regulate the bodies of people who wear bras. My initial reaction was confusion honestly, I never heard about an epidemic of kids not wearing underwear. I knew it was about bras and I felt that it was extremely unfair.” 

The new dress-code has room for interpretation when it comes to certain guidelines; “While our dress code does not currently provide for a measurement limit or minimum to shorts or skirt length, we do remind you that as students walk up stairs and sit in chairs, shorts or skirts that are already short become even shorter.” Aaron said in the email. Another example of a rule that isn’t clearly defined and identified is the restriction of “shoes that increase the likelihood of accidents and injury.”

The consequence for violating the dress code is described as students being “asked to change their clothing and then return to learning.” In addition, “Parents may be notified when this occurs for assistance. Students may be subject to other consequences as outlined in the school conduct guidelines. Repeated offenses will be subject to disciplinary consequences as per the Code of Conduct and SOMSD policies.” 

Lastly, Aaron asked parents to go over the dress code with their children as well as send their children to school with water bottles.



A New Tradition Is Coming to MAPSO...

By: Ciara French

492/500 Words

Photo credit to Brown Paper Tickets

MapSo (Maplewood/South Orange) is hosting a new type of fundraiser involving remarkable wigs, fabulous fashion and breathtaking lip-sync performances.

Vanguard Theater Company is having their first annual North Jersey Drag Show.  It will be held at the Burgdorff Center for Performing Arts, 10 Durand Rd, Maplewood NJ on June 24th at 8 p.m. All are welcomed however it is not kid friendly nor dog friendly.

The cast consist of half a dozen drag queens and kings.  According to Whitney Pillsbury, director of the show, “ During the drag show, a half dozen drag queens (young and old) will lip sync songs on the small stage at the burgdorff community room.  Beer and wine will be sold and there will be an intermission.  I expect there will be a lot of big hair, dance routines and laughter. There will be a hostess who goes by the name "Hazel Nutz’ who will also perform. Then she will introduce the other girls throughout the evening. That portion might include a bit of ‘shade.”  For those who are not aware of what is “Drag”, it refers to wearing clothes of the opposite sex. Drag queens are people, usually men, who dress in feminine clothing. While drag kings are people, usually women, who dress in  masculine clothing.  In some drag shows, many drag queens and kings dress as famous singers of the opposite sex.  Since drinks will be served the age limit is 21, so sorry for all the teens that wanted to attend the show.  “The art of drag takes many forms, dance, music, acting, costumes, makeup. The performer’s creative expression using wigs, makeup, high heels is an artform. And the performance, character and persona are also part of the artform’ said Pillsbury.

Vanguard Theater Company is located in Maplewood, NJ.  It was founded in 2015 and “is a 501 (c) 3 not for profit arts organization committed to producing transformational theater dedicated to diversity, community engagement, education and professional artistic mentorship.  Through dynamic storytelling, Vanguard Theater Company produces works that reflect the various complexions of the 21st century artist and audience”, as stated on vanguardtheater.org.  According to vanguardtheater.org, “Vanguard Theater Company endorses the goals of diversity, inclusion, and the principles of equal opportunity for all who have an interest in the theater industry.”  The reasons for producing this fundraiser are to, of course, raise money for “future vanguard productions” and also to expand their diverse community.  

Maplewood/South Orange area being a very diverse community, hosts many different culturally based events such as the XRoots Festival.  “I’ve always wished that Maplewood and South Orange had a drag show around pride and this year seemed like a good time to start one!” said Pillsbury.  Maplewood/South Orange will be having a new tradition in the town.   Janeece Freeman-Clark, co-founder and co-artistic director of Vanguard Theater company said “We are thrilled to be partnering with North Jersey Pride this year to start this tradition!”