Prom season is here

Schools make plans to keep it

By Patrick Cooley, pcooley@mariettatimes.com
Prom season starts Saturday with events for the Washington County Career Center and Williamstown High School.

One way many schools are kicking off the season is convincing their students to make good decisions and stay safe.

“This time of year is when the kids start to celebrate,” said Lt. Mary Pfeifer, Marietta post commander for the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “They are happy to be out of school, many of them are getting their own cars for the first time. You see a lot of speeders, aggressive driving behaviors, failing to yield at stop signs, and of course, DUIs (driving under the influence) and drug abuse.”

The Marietta post sends officers to all of the high schools in its area of coverage (Washington and Meigs counties) to speak to students about the dangers of drinking and driving and other seasonal temptations.

“One of the things we talk about is the Prom Promise,” Pfeifer said, referring to a pledge high schoolers take not to drink and drive.

The officers also talk about traffic safety and let students wear goggles that simulate the experience of being intoxicated in order to show them how difficult it is to function in such a state.

Troopers will be at Warren High School Thursday.

“They will do a program on safe driving habits and not drinking and driving and wearing a seat belt,” said Brooke Tucker, the junior class adviser for Warren High School. “Prom season is always a big time for tragedy to happen. Don’t know of any (at Warren) in the past, our kids are pretty responsible.”

Three busloads of Marietta High School students recently took a trip to a Prom Pledge event at the Convocation Center at Ohio University.

“Several thousand students from southeast Ohio participate,” said Marietta police officer A. J. Linscott, the school resource officer for the high school. “The event spoke about being yourself, followed by a guest speaker who talked about some of the bad decisions he made in his life.”

Linscott said this will be the first year the high school will have an after-prom event.

“Right now we’re in the planning stages to promote an after-prom party at the YMCA,” he said. “It will have swimming, basketball, a D. J. and several TV sets where (students) can play video games.”

Cathy Harper, coordinator for the Right Path for Washington County, said the after-prom event will begin immediately after the prom ends and will last until 6 a.m.

“If they want to be out all night for prom, parents will feel good about where they are,” she said.

Fort Frye High School is having CARteens, a program run by teenagers through 4-H, which will put on four different sessions.

“They are bringing in the state highway patrol, they are letting students wear beer goggles, they’re playing a Jeopardy game on safety and doing some scenarios,” said Michelle Morgan, prom adviser for Fort Frye High School. “This is something we haven’t done in the last several years. In the past we’ve sent our students to Ohio University (for the Prom Pledge event).”