Walking through the red carpet walkway with red, yellow and orange balloons surrounding the walkway, one might feel like a stroll through Central Park. Being bombarded by the different signs of NBC, Vans, and  Wicked, one is left thinking of only one place. The neon and incandescent lights of New York packed all in a school’s lunchroom. It was Homecoming.

The Homecoming dance normally comes the day after the Homecoming football game and it’s a national tradition in America. This year Tahoma is having it in late October with the varsity team going against Kent-Meridian the night before at Maple View Middle school. Though the dance will be held at Tahoma High School.

While the face of the school makes it look like every student is excited about homecoming, I decided to ask around the school to see what the student body thought of homecoming on their own. For example, a sophomore said that the theme “Night in New York is pretty basic and why not be different?” the current seniors have had an “Around the World” theme and New York was a destination so to them it’s sorta a repeat. Also, senior Jamie Renwick and sophomore Carolyn Crowder had suggested doing a “haunted” homecoming instead of having the Night in New York.

Though mainly people liked the creativity of the decorations many thought that there should have been more street lights throughout the dance so it wouldn’t have been as dark. Though there were a couple hiccups, this was a successful dance theme for Tahoma.   

About the homecoming court, numerous people have been upset by the fact that everyone on the homecoming court is made up of people they hardly know, even one junior that spoke on the condition of anonymity said that “it’s really only leadership choosing, not by the schools vote really” and another said “I don’t know any of them personally, a few I know who they are, most I have never met.”

Now, not bashing those who were on the court but many people are feeling like they should have a say in who’s in it versus just leadership. This is despite the fact that voting is open through grade level classes.  

Jorge Gonzalez said that if he were to change homecoming it would be to not make the homecoming court a popularity contest.

The inclusion of a second voting round caused some confusion for students, leaving them feeling as if there was some bias in the selection process. And some of this may be due to people not caring enough to change the homecoming court because they just wanted to have a fun time at the dance and many people were excited and happy about their homecoming experience.

Now leadership is made up of students, and they are learning also. Maybe instead of assuming that leadership knows what others are thinking, students should find ways to voice their opinion to leadership. But one thing everyone can agree on is that we can always look to be better and have a great dance.