Prom is supposed to represent the transition of an entire grade stepping one year nearer to adulthood.

One part of entering adulthood involves being in control of your own schedule and taking responsibility for yourself.

However, the administration has been denying the students this privilege of freedom, policing students at both junior and senior prom.

Although the doors open at 7 p.m. for junior prom at North Hempstead Country Club, 8 p.m., the doors are closed and nobody is allowed to leave.

While this may sound like a pre-cursor to a horror movie, this is a reality that juniors have faced for several years.  By the time the clock strikes eleven and the doors swing open there will typically be a huge line of people streaming out of the club, hoping to be on their way either home or to after-prom.

“I think that the primary reason that people line up to get out at junior prom is that they don’t want to be held by certain constraints and rules and regulations.  Because of these constraints, the students felt a little more pressured like they were being watched at every moment and made them want to leave,” says junior Sameer Nanda.

Forcing students to do anything will immediately decrease their desire to do said thing. Such logic is employed on the students for ten months of the year and they are not eager for it to be applied anywhere else.

Meanwhile, on June 27, the class of 2014 will walk down the red carpet at approximately 7 p.m.

Once the group passes through Schreiber’s “red carpet Hollywood style” entrance at the Sands Point Preserve, the doors will be closed and no one is allowed to keep until 1 a.m.

On a night that is supposed to celebrate a transition out of high school, there seems to be an excessive amount of administrative control.  The administration, however, certainly supports the restrictions put forth a long time ago.

“The students pay a certain amount of money, you want to make sure they get a certain experience out of prom.  Our main concern is to keep the students safe, and that’s why, from my perspective as a chaperone, safety is of the utmost importance to us,” said chemistry teacher Ms. Joy Grasso-Krebs.

There is ample evidence to back up the fact that teenagers can often go to extremes on prom night.

Most recently, Jacqueline Gomez at MacArthur High School in Houston, Texas was found dead in a hotel room on the night of her prom.

The death is suspected to be the cause of a combination of alcohol and prescription pain killers.

These kind of major safety concerns on the nights of both proms establish that there is a most likely a need for such preventative measures as set times to leave and enter.

However, the question is then raised as to why such arbitrary and rigid times?

“I do agree that the cap times can be a little frustrating, when it’s 10:50 and they are all lined up, you just feel like letting them go.” said Ms. Krebs.

There are several advantages to allowing students to leave earlier. For example, if students are able to leave earlier, they will be on the road earlier, when it is most likely safer to drive.

This would help the school to ensure that all students’ were able to leave prom in a safe manner.

It seems that under the current system, the crucial sense of autonomy is missing from these celebrations of advancement.