The After-The-Prom Party

Remember your prom? Remember what you did after your prom?

Did you have a safe, supervised event to go to, and was your transportation safe getting there? And getting back?

Uh-huh.

According to after-the-prom.org (see link below) 48 teenagers die and over 5,000 are injured during prom weekend in the United States, largely due to drunk driving. Food for thought, I think.

In our town and other towns around the United States, parents have done something about the dangers of what happens after the prom, other than engaging in ineffectual lecturing or imposing unheeded restrictions. These parents have created a safe, fun place for their children to go have fun after the prom. Yes, and I mean fun, because if it isn't fun, guess what? The kids won't go.

Like most initiatives that require willing participation, the after-the-prom party (ATPP) works on the principles of incentive and motivation. Here in Brookline, Massachusetts, the community and high school work together to provide these elements, thereby gaining a participation rate close to one hundred percent.

Here are the incentives:

• Booths giving away food and candy, some sponsored by local businesses frequented by students
• Free commemorative T-shirts
• Multiple comfortable places to sit, stand, dance, walk around or lie down
• Many fun activities such as fortune telling, photo booths, little electric bikes to ride around on, more, more, more
• A wildly decorated venue
• Movies and music the kids like

Here are the motivations:

• All other after-prom parties are discouraged
• Any student caught drinking (or using other drugs) on school property or at the prom is banned from the graduation ceremony
• The after-the-prom party is fun enough to attract an overwhelming majority of the students, leaving almost no one left to party independently with

Additional factors:

• The school community is behind this effort one hundred percent. Parents are discouraged from staging competing activities and most years cooperation is at one hundred percent. The PTO funds, organizes, and solicits volunteers for decorating, chaperoning, and take-down.
• The high school has a policy of letting the kids make their own decisions. For example, high school students who smoke may do so at a designated place on school property. As a result of this policy and the general investing of students with the freedom of personal responsibility, there is almost never any instance of smoking inside any of the school buildings even on the coldest, nastiest days.
• Transportation is provided from the prom to the ATPP
• The school educates the kids about the dangers of unbridled debauchery and strongly encourages attending the ATPP
• Backpacks are prohibited at the ATPP

The After-The-Prom Party is a great and fun way to keep your kids out of danger while celebrating youth and the end of high school at and around the Senior Prom.  Best of luck in creating yours.