(April 10, 2008) — Class of 2009 advisor Ellen Armitstead said that she’s been really wondering why by March 25 only 39 tickets were sold for the fi rst-ever cancelled junior prom, a disappointing number compared to the original 200-ticket goal and the later 75-ticket goal to achieve the break even point. “Who would’ve thought that we wouldn’t have a junior prom here?” Armitstead said. “We’ve always had one.” But, according to Armitstead, such an assumption was perhaps one of the problems involved in the prom’s downfall. When they made the committees for the different aspects of the dance—such as the tiara and sash committee and the tickets committee—fewer than ten students were actually involved. “Maybe that was where we went wrong, because there should’ve been a lot more people involved so that they would buy into the idea of the dance in the fi rst place.” Despite a phone call home from Principal Doug Dall announcing Tuesday’s deadline and a message on the intercom from Assistant Principal Kristina Provost that if the sales wouldn’t reach a breaking point by the deadline, the prom would be cancelled, students bought only six more tickets on Tuesday than they did on Monday. Armitstead heard that some students said they would rather go to their home schools’ dances, but junior Arineh Ohanyan felt that there is another reason behind the situation. “I don’t agree with that because Clark’s a high school— it’s a normal high school—and all high schools should have dances because we like to have memories and stuff with the school.” She said that a lot of people didn’t buy tickets be cause of the prom’s location. Instead of the relatively small auditeria, Ohanyan suggested, the school should have rented out a place or put the dance in the gym. Now Armitstead is concerned about what events will be supported by the Class of 2009 next year and wants the juniors to communicate as soon as possible about whether they will support the senior barbeque, the senior trip to Catalina, senior T-shirts, the senior prom or alternative events. “A lot of people are going to be more supportive since it’s going to be their last year of high school,” Ohanyan said. But Armitstead isn’t so sure—she already knows that at least ten people don’t care if the senior prom will materialize. According to Armitstead, when the photographer’s shift was cancelled, they received a message from him saying that Clark isn’t the only school subject to lower student prom attendance—he noticed that, generally, fewer students have been attending high school proms. Armitstead said that the photographer sees this as a change of the times.