Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School’s leadership program will hold its second annual Unified Prom on April 24.
Designed for students across intensive support classes, this event makes the quintessential high school experience accessible for all, an opportunity that traditional school dances cannot provide.
Sharon Coltoff is a senior at IBW and attended the first Unified Prom last spring. “I am excited to be with my friends at the dance this year,” she said.
Joah Kuehlthau, the senior class Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Wellness representative for IBW’s leadership program, has spearheaded the event for the past two years. He was inspired to organize the event at IBW after hearing about Unified Prom at a convention he attended last school year with the leadership program.
With the support of a committee of other leadership students, Kuehlthau gathers a list of all the necessary accommodations to incorporate into the dance. This can include no flashing lights, softer music and a larger dancing space to ensure attendees do not cluster together.
Kuehlthau says the dance is a chance for the entire student body to come together. “It is a very close-knit community when you are there,” he said. “There are lots of dance circles, conga lines and other things like that.”
The entire student body will be invited to this spring’s Unified Prom, a major difference from last year. Last spring, the dance was only open to students in special education classes, their parents and paraeducators. The dance will still be held in the cafeteria.
The committee also asks the students in intensive support classes for their favorite songs to create a playlist for the dance.
Coltoff’s favorite memory from last school year’s Unified Prom was playing UNO with her friend, Griffin Lau, another IBW senior who attended the event last spring.
Along with dancing and UNO, there were various activities for students to check out at last year’s Unified Prom. These included a beauty station, a photobooth, board games, sensory items and food. Kuehlthau and his committee plans to coordinate providing these at Unified Prom in month as well.
The yoga room will also be open during the dance, providing a quiet space for students to step into if they ever feel overwhelmed in the cafeteria.
“It was a really big highlight of the year. All of the students were just having fun and being themselves,” Christopher Mosson said, a paraeducator at IBW who attended Unified Prom last year.
Mosson thinks events like Unified Prom are essential to any student at IBW. “It’s important for students to have time outside of classrooms to connect and build community,” he said.
Kuehlthau agrees. “I don’t think there is anything like it at our school,” he said. “So if you can come, it’s definitely worth it.”
