RM held its prom on May 19, where juniors and seniors were able to celebrate the end of the school year on the dance floor. This year’s theme was “fire and ice.” 

Seniors were happy with the way prom was organized. “It was a lot of fun to dance with my friends and spend time at prom night, kind of engaging in these school community building activities,” senior Samantha Wu said. 

This year, grade 12 assistant principal Robin Wheeler was responsible for planning prom. Planning for this event generally starts around January with a group of juniors who pick a list of themes. This information is then set to the prom decorators who advise the planning team about what the best next steps are. 

Prom is generally scheduled to last from 8 – 11:30 p.m. The venue for prom has consistently been at the Rockville Hilton for many years, mainly due to its proximity to many peoples’ homes and the location for the post prom event. “The venue has separate rooms to break things up. One with the dance floor and one where people can get away if needed and sit down and grab some food,” Ms. Wheeler said.

One highlight of prom is crowning the prom court and prom royalty. The 10 seniors on prom court for this year are: Kobina Asafu-Adjaye, Nadia Estrada, Annyee Foo, Hannah Joya, Ella Koenig, Jake Lee, Hrishita Mareddy, Pacifico Murphy, Citlali Pelaez and Samantha Wu. 

The members of prom court are announced during prom and attendees vote at the beginning of the event. The winners, or “prom royalty,” are announced later on in the event. This year, Wu and Asafu-Adjaye were selected as prom royalty.

“I was kind of over the moon and really happy to be voted for and it felt really nice,” Asafu-Adjaye said. 

“I was really surprised to be honest,” Wu said. “I was super excited because me and my best friend were both on it together and I just did not think that either of us was going to win. Honestly, asking people, I don’t even know who voted.”

“Prom court was really fun. I just got to have a really great time with all of the other nominees and I think it was just a really good end to my senior year that I couldn’t have asked for,” Asafu-Adjaye said.

However, the traditional concept of prom court has been scrutinized in recent years due to its gender norms and discriminatory titles. According to an article from Love to Know, “there’s very little room in the tradition and language of Prom King and Prom Queen to include individuals who fall outside the binary (transgender, nonbinary, etc.).”

While this may seem like a concern to many, seniors concluded that the selection of RM’s prom royalty was seemingly more inclusive. “I also appreciate the way RM does their best to make it more gender-inclusive for everyone and tries to not have titles as ‘Prom King’ or ‘Prom Queen,’ but just as ‘Prom Royalty’,” Asafu-Adjaye said.