As the month of April swiftly left North Penn High school, May wasted no time rushing in with the usual flood of end of the year activities. With this last full month of the school year comes AP exams, warm weather, and of course the Senior Prom. This special night for more than three-quarters of the graduating class has been held at Drexelbrook Ballroom in Drexel Hill for the last two years. In addition to North Penn, the ballroom serves many other area high schools as well.

This year however, Drexelbrook has requested North Penn to alter a few of its security procedures at the beginning of the night.

Last week, North Penn’s senior class was first introduced to this altered, upcoming protocol. As delivered by Principal Burton Hynes in an assembly on Friday of last week, each student attending the prom will have to be put through a small search of their person.

In an interview with Hynes regarding the specifics of the newly instated rule, Hynes made certain that people aren’t fearful over these procedures.

“Drexelbrook is saying that they must check everyone coming into their proms. We’ve argued that we don’t do that. We’ve said that we will monitor the students and if checking is warranted, then we will check the ones that need to be checked. But they are saying that if one is checked, everyone needs to be… But this year it came around again and Drexelbrook again told us about their requirement. They said that all their other proms do it and that it is never a problem,” explained Hynes.

The word ‘search’ came up into question next. At the assembly, some students were uneasy when terms like ‘search’ were first used. Hynes made a point to define what meaning that word held however.

“[Drexelbrook and I] got into defining what ‘search’ means. What we’ve arrived at is the term ‘inspection.’ Girls as they walk in will be asked to open their purses, however we’re not reaching in or snooping but we need to take a look in there to make sure there aren’t any bottles that shouldn’t be there or any other kinds of contraband. Boys as they come in will be asked to hold their jackets open. There will be no pat down unless there is a need for something like that to advance the inspection even further, and they will be asked to pull out their pants pockets and turn them inside out… It’s what [Drexelbrook] is requiring us to do.”

As always, there are six check-in tables for all the students to be sorted out at. Following check-in will be where inspections will take place.

Hynes also talked about who would be conducting the new procedures. To try to make it as comfortable and as familiar as possible to the students, Hynes has stipulated with Drexelbrook that North Penn’s own security will be the ones doing the inspections.

“I want folks who are known to our students doing this. So you’ll see some of our security staff there and they understand what the expectation will be. They know this isn’t going to be an all-out search and we’re not trying to find things but we’re also trying to be cautious and cooperative with Drexelbrook. We want a safe and orderly prom,” said Hynes.

If in fact in one of these searches comes up positive with something, whether it be drugs, alcohol or a weapon, all school rules are in effect. This also means that if need be, the police will be contacted. Despite the fact that these instances need to be treated with severity, Hynes went on to add that such problems have never been very prevalent in years past. At every prom, almost all students comply with all school rules.

“I don’t want anyone getting in trouble at the prom. I don’t want a school activity to ultimately lead to someone’s consequences either with the police or with us,” said Hynes.

That leads to the final question for the future. Will this protocol be instated for good? As long as North Penn’s prom is at Drexelbrook, these inspections should be a requirement for not only our school, but for all schools. In the end, these rules will hopefully keep kids safe and having a memorable night.