First of all, I would like to thank you for taking an interest in something related to school and student voice further allowing us to speak up on current
situations.
As you know, the petition that was written against Kauai High School’s prom attire regulations has reached a point it should never have reached. In the article that was published/written March 10, 2018, much of the “argument” on the prom attire was very one-sided. My goal is to give an opposing statement on the prom attire petition.
One thing I would like to address is that the prom attire agreement form has been the same throughout the years and other schools in the state have regulations very similar, if not more extreme than the regulations we have at Kauai High.
In the petition, it states that “Kauai High School is the only school on Kauai with this many absurd restrictions.”
At Waimea High School, the students are required to show their dress to admin or anyone in charge of prom before they can pay to attend. In my opinion, this requirement is much more extreme than Kauai High’s as there are no extreme obligations like these.
At Kapaa High School, their regulations state almost the exact same things with little differences such as no open sides and no “see-through material and showing of under garments.” Regulations like these shows the similarities between the public high schools on the island of Kauai.
Aside from the facts, my perspective on this petition is that it was made out of anger and confusion. A supporter of this petition was able to attend a PTSA meeting on March 7 at the Kauai High School library. She went on to mention that when this petition was made, the creator and a few of her friends were talking in a group chat about how upset they were regarding these regulations. As a teenager, anger tends to drive more negative emotions out at the worst possible times and this petition is an example of that.
This anger also showed in an Instagram story post on a private account sharing vulgar motions and words toward a teacher that is against this petition. Overall, this seemed to have the purpose of exposing anger instead of providing evidence and solutions to go along with their “argument.”
I am glad to say that because of this petition, student voice has been the top priority throughout the school and I am grateful for that. However, publishing an article with only one perspective seemed to allow a limited amount of student voice to the public.
I hope that from my opposing perspective on this petition you will find that not everyone is a supporter of it and will inspire you to do more research before publishing an argumentative article. Thank you for listening.
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Jalen Hook is a resident of Lihue.
