Despite recent announcements, a story published last week in The Talon, and other information being passed around that tied prom tickets to “unexcused absences” only, excused absences are now included in prom regulations.

The original information was that students were required to attend school 85% of the time, not including excused absences, in order to attend prom. The new rule actually includes all absences and does not differentiate between excused or unexcused.

“The change in the expectation is because I misunderstood how Synergy calculated the absence rate,” said Activities Director Ehren Schneider. He would also like it to be noted that students who do not meet the attendance expectation due to unforeseen circumstances such as health issues, may schedule appointments with the main office to discuss the matter with school administrators.

In order to attend prom, students must have 85% or better attendance from Feb. 6 to April 15.

“Our attendance for junior and seniors is lackluster so our goal is to motivate attendance for classes,” said Schneider.

To help get the word out, there will be a pink paper going home in the report cards, social media updates, and monthly emails and a calls home to parents.

“I don’t anticipate this will affect many students,” said Schneider.  “In my experience, when you set high expectations, students will rise to the expectation.”

When buying tickets, there will be an attendance list similar to the list of fees and missing books.  “Attendance is the only thing that will prohibit students from going to prom,” said Schneider.  “If you have a missing library book, you can turn that in and buy your tickets. But you can’t fix your attendance.”

The other new policy is about inappropriate dancing.  When students arrive at prom they will all be given a wristband.  When a chaperone sees someone acting or dancing inappropriately, the wristband will be removed.  If the student acts inappropriately a second time, they will be escorted from prom.

“This is to curb the growing trend of inappropriate dancing.  Last year at prom and this year at winter formal there was a growing rate of inappropriate dancing,”  said Schneider.

Last year, there was a discount on tickets if students had good attendance. Due to no real change, new regulations were put in place.