By Alexandra Madsen
As the fourth period bell rang, Lane juniors and seniors raced from all over the school to room 113, pushing and shoving each other into lockers, down stairs, and through the halls in order to get one of the 160 Homecoming tickets sold Sept. 18.
Some students did whatever necessary to get a ticket. Two broken teeth, bruises, and a couple falls were some of the injuries that occurred as a result.
Nora Kollar, Div. 470, was one of the students inside the mob during fourth period lunch. She, like many other students at the scene, found a group of her friends and waited with them in line to get her tickets. As the hallway became crowded, Kollar became more and more anxious and was pressed between two people with no space to move.
“At one point my feet weren’t even on the ground. I was totally suspended in the air,” Kollar said. “One random guy had his hand in-between my backpack and my back, actually pushed on my back, which made me feel uncomfortable.”
Mrs. Hanly and other administrators were able to move the mob out of the way and toward the lockers but there was still a lot of shoving done by students to move in closer to the door, and pushing other students out of the way.
Another student, Rafaeal Baca, Div. 454, had his fourth period class by staircase M on the third floor. He lined up by the door in order to dash out as soon as the bell rang. As he raced down the stairs as fast as he could, he tripped and fell face first onto the ground. Determined to get his tickets, he jumped to his feet, and continued to run. When he finally arrived to the line, he felt something missing in his mouth; there were two empty spaces where parts of his front teeth used to be.
“At first the adrenalin to get the tickets was really on my mind, but after it sunk in I was mad and embarrassed,” Baca said. “After a while though, I started to see it as funny, and I pretended to be a hick for the rest of the day.”
Baca filed an incident report with Mr. Milsap as a precaution, and went to the dentist to get his teeth filled in that afternoon. He felt that what happened to him was unfair and could have been avoided.
“I think having juniors and seniors together this year was a mess,” Baca said. “If they need to have two grade levels a day, it should at least be freshman and seniors, and sophomores and juniors, because seniors and juniors really prioritize it, and that was what I think caused a lot of the chaos this year.”
As many know, this year the process of getting Homecoming tickets was a little different. The administration said that, although upperclassmen look forward to the dance and many attend, the dance is for the school as a whole, and giving upperclassmen an advantage is unfair to others.
Vice Principal Mr. Ara believed that the change was necessary for ensuring the process was fair to all.
“As many parents have commented that this year the change is unfair, priority given to senior in years past made it virtually impossible for freshman to get tickets,” Ara said. “We had parents also commenting about the fairness to the underclassmen, seeing that is it a school wide event.”
In future years the administration hopes to move the process of buying tickets online in order to avoid any more accidents.
“One idea we are contemplating to avoid a mad rush, is to do a lottery and have students apply online,” Hanly said. “Another idea is to have a senior/junior dance in one gym and a sophomore/freshman dance in another gym. That would probably raise the ticket price though, as we would need additional security and a second DJ.”
Although many students have concerns about the process of getting tickets and the changes made to those processes, the administration wants there to be equal opportunities for all.
“I know that many seniors were upset regarding Homecoming this year. All I can say is that change happens and it’s not a bad thing,” Hanly said. “Homecoming is a school wide event whose focus should be on school spirit and we want all students to have access to that spirit. We look forward to our continuation of this great school year and the many events to come.”
