WCDSB says prom not ‘cancelled’, agrees to help students advertise

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is reversing course on a refusal to help graduating students advertise for prom though it's also looking to set the record straight when it comes to recent reports it had 'cancelled' the event.

In a statement, the WCDSB said prom has not been “sanctioned or sponsored by either the school board or the schools” since prior to the pandemic, meaning the board has not and cannot 'cancel' it.

Despite that, it can very much stand in the way of students organizing their own and that's what at least one concerned parent has suggested has been happening.

“Reaching out to students to get their prom set up is a big task and it's a difficult task when you can't advertise in the school,” said Barb Melanson, whose daughter attends St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge and who also penned a letter to the school board asking for that to change.

“When I say advertise, I mean you can't do announcements, you can't do posters, you can't do any kind of newsletters, you can only do it by word-of-mouth and that becomes very difficult because you don't know all your classmates,” she continued. “And it just got to the point last week where [students] had some posters up at the school and they were taken down.”

In an update, Melanson said the school board has since agreed to send a QR code linking to information about prom via an email blast to all graduating students.

“I feel very positive that that's a great first step in making this happen.”