The growth in ticket prices is making prom more and more costly. In 2018, ticket costs rose for the first time in four years, increasing from $90 to $100 each at the early-bird price with an Associated Student Body (ASB) membership and $110 to $120 at the standard price, according to statistics provided by the Student Executive Council (SEC). Costs have jumped again this year, going up to $110 at the early-bird price with ASB membership and $130 at normal costs. According to Student Activities Director Lisa Hall, however, the money made from ticket sales almost entirely goes toward paying for the venue and other amenities. The venue this year, the San Francisco Exploratorium, was substantially more expensive than previous years’ venues. Ticket costs also pay for extra accommodations provided to promgoers, including food, the DJ, docents to run the exhibits, photo booths and other amenities. Despite these costs, prom is widely considered to be one of the most significant events in a student’s high school experience. Upperclassmen are expected and almost required to go to prom due to social pressure, yet these rising ticket prices are making this event increasingly inaccessible and inconvenient. In order to access an occasion universally considered to be central to the teenage experience, students must be willing to pay exorbitant sums.

The rising costs of prom lie not only in the tickets but also in the overwhelming prices of assorted prom-worthy attire. Students find themselves spending $919 on prom on average, according to the 2015 Visa Prom Spending Survey. Formal attire, including floor-length dresses and tuxedos can comprise up to half of this cost. According to Fortune magazine, dresses typically cost anywhere from $200 to $1000 and tuxedo rentals cost between $100 and $400, with boutonnieres and corsages racking up the cost. Additionally, girls are oftentimes expected to spend additional money on make-up, nails and hairdressers, while boys are traditionally looked upon to spend money on flowers, posters and other promposal equipment. Entire financial sectors have been built around prom. According to the market research company IBISWorld, the formalwear rental industry racks up to a billion dollars a year, with much of that cost being associated with prom season. Promgirl.com reported earnings of $19 million dollars last year, catering almost exclusively to prom-going high schoolers. While the commercialization of prom has benefited many in the industry, it is often at the expense of promgoers themselves and their families. Though students pay for their own prom gear on occasion, the burden of these costs generally falls to parents, who may be hesitant to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on what essentially amounts to a four-hour experience.

The most costly facet of prom, however, is the social pressure of attending. The culture of prom is, by nature, non-inclusive. People constantly feel the urge to try and outdo each other in terms of glamour. Social media, in general, tends to present a distorted view of reality. But because of prom, an event designed to be as glitzy and extravagant as possible, these views become even more flashy and aestheticized. Going to prom with a date is a well-known expectation, and people often can feel forced into uncomfortable or awkward situations. Though it is not explicitly stated, a common social trend is that people without dates are also quietly looked down upon, as many singles go in large groups in fear of being ostracized. This behavior seems to manifest itself exclusively during prom season, encouraging outdated and unwelcoming ideas of identity and personal insecurities.

The significance of prom, like the significance of any event or activity, ultimately amounts to what a person  makes of it. A plethora of different activities and excursions lack the financial and social baggage of prom while still being just as, if not more, meaningful. Throwing a party of your own, reserving a dinner for two and even simply spending time with friends are just three of the countless different ways to have fun and celebrate.

Prom is often regarded as an experience unlike any other—a romanticized night of perfection that most students participate in just twice in their entire lifetimes. But given the financial and social baggage that prom carries with it, this perfection can hardly be worth it. The reality is that the costs of prom tickets, prom apparel and social pressure make the dance an increasingly unsavory prospect.

Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, testified on Thursday, Sept. 27 in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee alleging that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were both teenagers. Since then, another woman has come out to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

Kavanaugh, an appellate judge who was nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court this July, denied the accusations in testimony. Since then, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched and completed an investigation into the allegations.

Vigil organizer Vicky Blaine Mattson says 900 people gathered in solidarity with Dr. Ford. “There were hundreds of people at the event, and it was really great to see so many men and women come out in support of Christine,” she said.

Junior Sylvana Domokos, who took part in the event, feels that it was powerful to see members of the community support Dr. Ford. “It was really quite incredible to see so many people supporting women and their stories,” she said. “There really was a big collection of so many different types of people of different ages. It was really just wonderful to see the support.”

According to Domokos, keeping those in power accountable is important in the current political environment. “I just really hope that the American people and government take into full account the people who are going to be governing us,” she said. “While someone may be an extremely competent judge or lawyer, can we truly accept that they are competent without judging their character?”

Junior Christopher Liao says that people should take unfounded accusations with a grain of salt. “It’s great that people are fulfilling their civic duty by advocating for issues that they believe in,” he said. “However, we shouldn’t take these protests as a sign that one is guilty or innocent.” Liao believes that cases like this one should not be decided by popular sentiment. “Otherwise, our nation will descend into mob rule,” he said.

Sophomore Paranjay Singh believes that there must be concrete proof before he can claim Kavanaugh is guilty. “At first I was against Kavanaugh but I did more research and my stance is: he’s innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

Linda Henigin helped organize the Sept. 27 rally at City Hall, and says that this issue is especially close to the community. “Dr. Ford is one of the community members here, and I know friends of hers, even people who carpooled with her,” she said. “They all wanted to focus their energy and show their support for her, and I was happy to help make that happen.”

Henigin believes that while the discourse over sexual harassment has come a long way from where it was five years ago, there is still much progress to be made. “We’re not all the way there yet,” she said. “But I think the immediate tendency to look for reasons why a woman might be lying is not [like it] used to be.”

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), only 31 percent of rapes are ever reported to law enforcement, with an even smaller percentage of other forms of sexual assault being reported. Women who don’t report sexual assaults cite reasons such as fearing consequences, minimizing trauma and feeling helpless about the situation.

Henigin has also written a thank you card to Ford as part of a campaign started by Palo Alto resident Kristen Podulka. “When we heard last week that she was getting death threats and hate mail and trolls commenting, we started a hashtag, #ThankYouCardsForChristine,” she said. “We’re sending those cards to her address at Palo Alto University where she works.”

Senior Sanaa Zakariya, who also attended the vigil, says that the community has done a lot to show their support for Ford. “I’ve been to a lot of these demonstrations, and not just for sexual assault suvivors,” she said. “But over the past couple of years, it has been a very interesting  atmosphere.”

By now you already know how to navigate the labyrinth that is high school, but you still only have around a year of experience under your belt. It’s the perfect time to delve deeper into your own interests. Join or start a club, take some time to volunteer, or start doing the extracurricular that one friend of yours is nagging you about.

One thing that surprised me was how quickly things got rolling. No more human bingo, or any cheesy get-to-know-you games. Teachers are less lenient with deadlines and your classes get exponentially harder. One of your friends is doing varsity sports and this other guy or gal has a 5.0 unweighted grade point average and for some reason is breezing through 89102 Advanced Placement classes you didn’t think sophomores were allowed to take.

And soon, all this begins to take your toll on you.

“Why does so-and-so make everything look like a cakewalk?” you begin to ask yourself. “What am I missing? Am I a bad student? Am I going to drop out of school?” These thoughts will start swirling around your head and will clog up your brain as you hunch over the chemistry lab that is due the next day. You can’t focus so you get anxious and you get anxious because you can’t focus. This vicious cycle keeps repeating itself, and before you know it, your life is spiraling out of control.

Calm down. Take a deep breath.

Take your foot off the gas and relax your grip on the steering wheel. Know that the stresses you are going through are just speed bumps and detours on your trip through sophomore year.

School work, grades and extracurriculars are important, but the most important thing is to take care of yourself; your well-being and your own mental health. After all, in 10 years you won’t be flipping through your old yearbook reminiscing fondly about the English assignment you turned in late or the unit test you passed by the skin of your teeth. It’s the experiences you gain, the things you have tried for the first time, and even the dumb antics you pull off with your friends that will define your sophomore year. So sit back, buckle your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride.

I spent my break the way I have always spent my break for the past 10 years; doing absolutely nothing productive. Like a bear hibernating from the cold to survive the winter, a student must hibernate from work in the summer if he or she wants to survive the next school year.

But apparently, no one seems to agree with me. All summer my parents tried to guilt trip me into applying for internships, previewing next year’s classes and working on my long overdue Eagle Scout project. “Have you studied for the SAT?” v “Why didn’t you get accepted into (insert elitist college summer program)?” were sprinkled into every conversation I had with them. If that wasn’t enough, every one of my friends had their entire vacations planned out with Living Skills classes, volunteer service time and sports conditioning, mysteriously forgetting to set aside time for all the hang-out plans we talked about all school year.

My parents’ nagging and my friends’ unavailability eventually pushed me to the breaking point. So naturally one day in late June, I decided to run away from home. No one was in the house, so a few minutes, a Clipper Card and a neglected phone call later I was on the Northbound Caltrain to my own unplanned solo mini-vacation to San Francisco. I don’t remember where I went. I don’t even know if I got off the train at the right station. But I do remember trying to decide between going to the Federal Reserve, taking a ferry across the bay to Alameda and waltzing into a bakery to ask for gluten free avocado toast.

I also remember feeling an otherworldly detachment from reality I had never felt before. I was 50 miles away from home with zero supervision. I could have walked in any direction and that direction was the right way to go because no one was there to tell me otherwise. This feeling was what I wanted my summer to be.

I still can’t imagine how working adults keep themselves mentally intact without a mandatory two months off to enjoy themselves the way students on summer vacation do. For the 12 years we are in school, we kids have this amazing chunk of time where we get to pull the covers over our heads at 10 a.m every day and say, “Go away, Mom, I’m trying to sleep.”

Yet every year, Mom nags a little harder.  Every year we wake up a little earlier, letting another person stick another thing onto our agendas. “This activity won’t stress me out,” we say. “This internship looks great on my college apps.” Every summer, we chip away at our free time and with it, our sanity.

I would love to travel to Uganda to run a hospital or go to a university to help Professor Nobel-Prize-Harvard-Degree Ph.D. cure cancer, but I think my sanity matters more.

In 2007, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) accepted an anonymous $2.6 million donation to install new synthetic turf fields at both Gunn and Palo Alto High Schools.

The contractor hired to install the fields, O.C. Jones and Sons, used a synthetic grass called Duraspine, which was manufactured by the French-Canadian company FieldTurf. The City of Palo Alto’s 2011 Artificial Turf Factsheet states that the Duraspine carpet consists of a crushed rock base below a rubber weed barrier. The weed barrier is then covered in silica sand and recycled rubber particles. The grass itself is made of a polyethylene, a plastic commonly found in water bottles and packaging.

A New Jersey Advanced Media investigation found that the Duraspine product used in the Gunn and Paly fields deteriorates up to five times faster than advertised. The investigation claimed that Duraspine was not properly manufactured to withstand UV radiation, causing the surface to deteriorate more quickly. The report asserted that company officials first realized the defect a full year before the sale of Duraspine to PAUSD, though they never revealed any information on the turf’s premature deterioration. “From the first signs of trouble in 2006 until sales of the brand ended in 2012, FieldTurf officials never changed their sales pitch,” the report said.

Despite knowing of the defects, former FieldTurf CEO John Gilman lauded Duraspine’s resilience to wear in a 2006 sales pitch. “We anticipate that a mono-surface will have a useful life longer than 10 years,” Gilman said.

According to then Chief Business Official Bob Golton, the district was unaware of these defects when it purchased Duraspine turf. “When our fields were installed, there were no concerns about FieldTurf,” he said. “We are [now] fully aware of the concerns and litigation that have arisen in the last several years.”

PAUSD is not the only district being affected by Duraspine’s shortcomings. FieldTurf maintains that Duraspine has been sold to clients in over 1100 athletic fields worldwide, including 283 fields in California. Since 2007, 15 lawsuits in six different states have been filed against the Fieldturf, according to a Truth in Advertising report.

O.C. Jones and Sons Estimates Manager Greg Souder said that FieldTurf is still one of the largest suppliers of artificial grass in the Bay Area. “The FieldTurf guys usually act as a subcontractor for us,” Souder said. “And there’s probably a 90 percent chance that they’re the ones who did it for a given school.”

According to Souder, O.C. Jones and Sons had FieldTurf lay its own artificial grass independently while O.C. Jones worked on drainage and excavation. “It comes out basically like carpet in your house,” he said. “They then roll [the Duraspine] out together in a lawn.”

Athletic Director Curtis Johansen says that the rubber infill and plastic grass detached from the carpet tends to cling to athletes’ clothing. “It comes off the shoes and over the socks,” he said. “Football or soccer are affected by it because soccer slides a lot. [The infill is] kind of like dirt, but since it’s not natural, it will stick a bit.”

Despite these drawbacks, some athletes still prefer Gunn’s artificial turf over natural grass. Freshman soccer player Scott Hwang says that loose rubber infill does not do much to affect his performance. “It’s not really dangerous to play on turf,” he said. “[It’s] more likely to have an irritating cut, but bumpy grass can lead to more [serious] in-game injury.”

Hwang believes that loose turf can still cause rare, albeit minor, injuries like turf burns on knees. “[Turf burns] are basically shallow scrapes that bleed,” he said. “Once, a ref said a player had to leave the field because of a bloody one, but that almost never happens.”

Johansen agrees with Hwang, believing that Gunn’s use of synthetic grass was still the right decision. “The main reason why they would install it at any school if you have heavy use like in P.E.,” he said. “During the day, in sports after school and with rentals on weekends—that’s another big component. After our sports teams are done on Saturdays and Sundays, it’s important that the field doesn’t turn to mush.”

Golton says that both Gunn and Paly athletic fields are to be replaced in coming years using different artificial grass products. “Artificial turf fields generally have a life cycle of 10-12 years,” he said. “The industry has moved on and the materials will be different.”