Homecoming is an important and exciting part of high school. Everyone, for years, has always looked forward to this beginning-of-the-year dance and all the festivities surrounding it. A student said, “Honestly, I think the homecoming dance this year has a lot to look forward to. I’m honestly really excited about the theme. I think everyone seems to be talking about it a lot, and that’s very, very cool and awesome. But I always think we can always work on including more people and having more diversity when it comes to group gatherings like that here at Lakeside.” How can we figure out where these thighs stem from and how to work together on making those changes that students want to see?
Changes can be relatively different depending on the school you go to and the area you live in. But in past years, a lot of change has to do with what’s popular at the time. For example, in 2023, our theme was “Disco”. In 2024, our theme was “Love Island”. And for this year, 2025, our theme is “By the Bayou.” I like the theme. I think it’s better than last year. The students actually chose it ’cause last year, the teachers chose it,” said a student. Things are bound to change throughout the years based on student interest. But not all times are our calls heard.
There has been a big speculation about student participation in the dance. “I think over the years, it’s definitely changed. Especially with how distant everyone has been recently due to social media and phones. So I think over the last couple of years, we’ve definitely seen a decline in student participation, which is something we should definitely look into and look forward to fixing.” -Dante (10), a student. Homecoming is supposed to be something student-centered, like a lot of other things that go on in high school. And with less student participation, there might be some things that teachers and staff may not pay attention to when planning.
From a conducted interview with Emiko Takeuchi (11), a student, she said that “I think it’s worse because we spent too much money last year and then this year we had to, like, have less money from the budget.” This obviously shows that students can even sense the budget changes that are put into our dance. Homecoming tickets are $25. This doesn’t even include the amount of money that people spend on dresses, hair, makeup, etc. With prices rising each year on items, especially items directed to women, it could be harder for people to afford getting their tickets and also the expenses of making themselves look pretty.
Now, how to work on homecoming being more inclusive for everyone. Two excerpts from interviews state: “Well, in student government, we’re trying really hard to make, well, we can’t because I’m in the district, do elections differently, but we’re trying really hard to find ways to get more kids included, using sales and using representatives from each homeroom. Hopefully that’s going to get us kids from all demographics in the school, and to get them, yeah, she’s here. Get kids from all different demographics in the school to be able to participate. So we’re hoping to do that,” -Ms. Boggs, a teacher. “ A variety of music. Making it appeal to more demographics.. A variety, yeah, that would definitely make more people go.” -Ms. Stephanopoulos.
These two ideas give us an insight into how teachers and staff view the matter of the inclusivity of homecoming. There are many ways to benefit from how we do things. Food and other refreshments can be provided to make homecoming more enjoyable for students and teachers. WE have a lot that we can work on and improve, and I hope we can make those changes in the future.
