Prom is a rite of passage for many high school seniors and one of the last big events before the senior class goes their separate ways. This year’s prom will be on a boat at Navy Pier in Chicago and the rules for transportation are different than they have been for previous years, seeing as this is the first time prom will be held on a boat.

To get to and from prom, students will need to report to campus at the designated time and ride a coach bus downtown. There is no current alternative to riding the bus.

For students who want to go out and spend time in the city after prom, this is very inconvenient. Even if they want to go to a local after party, by the time they load up the bus and take all the extra time to count students and take attendance and then take everyone back to the school, it will be very late.

Not every student attending prom will be eighteen or over, and curfew in Plainfield is midnight.

Instead, students should be offered the chance to opt out of the use of the coach bus and take their own transportation, of course with some stipulations regarding behavioral records and their driving history – if the student plans on driving themselves. In the event that a student is approved to drive themselves to prom, parent permission would also be necessary.

Some students may want to take advantage of the coach bus because they might not have any other way of getting there, or perhaps they do not feel comfortable driving in Chicago. This is not a proposition to remove the transportation provided by the school; but instead a proposition to grant some students a degree of freedom on one of the last school dances of their high school career.