As the end of the school year quickly approaches, seniors are getting ready to graduate, finalizing post-high-school plans and grappling with senioritis. According to Lisa Moomaw, LASA student council senior president, prom is the perfect opportunity to relax and hang out with friends. The joint event is run by the student councils of both schools, which have always orchestrated prom. Moomaw said this system is slightly different than how other schools might run it.

“What makes ours most special is how student-run it is because a lot of other schools have the parents or the PTA plan it,” Moomaw said. “It kind of makes it so that we have more feedback that’s closer to what our class wants because we’re students ourselves.”

The two student councils start planning for prom towards the beginning of every school year, to ensure the event is as fun and successful as possible. The planning process starts out with the councils selecting a venue for the event.

“I think that’s one of the most important, because if it’s a bad venue, then it’s going to be a bad event,” Moomaw said. “We do that in the fall, and we go look at different places. This year’s [prom is] at the Sheraton, which is a fairly nice hotel.”

Next, student council moves onto decor. Activities and backdrops must be decided and finalized before continuing on with the process. According to Moomaw, although those details are small, they help differentiate LASA prom from other schools’ proms.

“We have trinkets, we have a photo booth that creates a flipbook,” Moomaw said. “I don’t know if other schools have that. And then we have caricatures, which is a lot of fun.”

These small details aren’t the only thing that differentiates LASA from other high schools. Jaguar prom includes both juniors and seniors, as well as the upperclassmen’s dates. The school also tries to spice up the dance’s location.

“Every school kind of does prom differently,” Moomaw said. “We do it where juniors and seniors can attend. At other schools, only seniors can attend. It’s hard to accommodate that many people within our budget. . . some schools do it in their gym, but we try to be classier … not that homecoming’s not classy, but it is in the gym. Obviously, Westlake prom is going to be different from LASA prom because it’s Westlake.”

Other prom traditions are less unique but still important, such as getting ready and eating dinner with friends before the big night. Junior Sofia Odom said she is looking forward to these traditions on this year’s prom night.

“My friends and I are definitely going to get ready together and eating dinner together,” Odom said. “Prom on a big scale is a way for me to really celebrate the people I go to school with and get to share that experience with.”