Once every school year, students get online to vote for their new homecoming King and Queen, and usually when going to click on a name, they pick the one that is familiar.  

And then those people get to wear a sash and crown and ride around in the back of a truck or jeep around the football field at halftime, waving to their adoring fans. 

This is a long tradition practiced by nearly every high school in America. 

But why? 

Could this simple click boost someone’s confidence, and crush someone else’s at the same time? 

While it is fun to see who wins, there is no particular reason that people would vote for someone that they didn’t know because they think they would be better fit for the position. It is simply just a popularity contest, and that is why it should no longer be an event at Highland.  

“I was surprised when I found out I won, and even when I was nominated,” Homecoming princess Kate Raybould said. “I was pretty happy about it though.”   

The idea of homecoming royalty is a good one, but its execution could be hurting some people. Publicly losing something, even as simple as a school vote, can be so crushing, humiliating, and can really lower your self-esteem.  

“I do feel like it is more of a popularity thing than anything else,” Raybould said. “There wasn’t anything we had to do to be nominated or after we won.”  

When there is nothing else on the line besides making an appearance at the football game and homecoming assembly, people don’t really have to think about whether they are making a good decision or not, they just choose who they know. 

Homecoming royalty would be a better idea if the people who won had to complete something. Something like service hours or helping set up the dance. This would incline people to want to vote for someone based on something that they would do. 

In high school, your reputation is everything to you, and you put the part of yourself out that you want everyone else to know. It is a very brave thing to put yourself out there like that, and that in itself should be celebrated. It is quite the accomplishment to even think about being Homecoming king or queen. 

I do think that homecoming royalty is a fun concept but can ultimately be damaging to teens when put into that vulnerable situation.