WOHS moves to “Homecoming Royalty”

In a breaking of American tradition, West Orange High School has made the decision to switch the terms “Homecoming King/Queen” to “Homecoming Royalty” – because it’s finally relevant.  

Devin Wilkes, the Senior Class Council President who first took the initiative of this process, notes, “Even before I was elected, I just kind of knew that having a king and queen was not as progressive as it could have been.” With a large population of nonbinary students, she thought the switch would be fitting. With the changes made for gender-neutral bathrooms, “Why can’t we do the same for a homecoming title?” 

Wilkes believes that students and parents will have mixed responses, “There are people that want to keep the tradition, but there are also people who are going to be more progressive-minded.” 

To begin this process, Wilkes emailed Dr. Kimberly Mancarella, Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Operations & Activities, “In my email to Dr. Mancarella, I outlined that we’re a school that’s about inclusivity and acceptance. This school can accept all students and not leave anyone out.”

The switch only took a day to be approved. However, this is not the first year the switch in terms has been talked about among students. It had only been building chatter until Wilkes launched this year’s conversation. 

The past two years at West Orange High School, there have been faculty meetings/training regarding sensitivity with race and gender. “We in conjunction with the Gay-Straight Alliance club, created a website of resources for West Orange High School faculty and included professional development training for all teachers, having to do with gender-neutral and non-binary terms and how it affects teaching in our classrooms such as pronoun usage, etc,” says math teacher Dr. Nuzzi. 

But despite the importance of nonbinary inclusion, the decision was not made in previous years due to the matter only being “a random comment in the past that was not seen on all angles,” says Dr. Mancarella. 

Two years of faculty training and what led to the change being finalized in one day? A class council president request, a teacher request, and a nationwide trend. 

Throughout the two years of mere building chatter, the idea was never taken seriously. “It was only a random comment,” Dr. Mancarella repeats.

But the time seems to finally be right. “We had Devin, and then we had another teacher who sent an email expressing that this was something being practiced in different states. So when you have it coming at all angles, that’s how you know the time is now,” says Dr. Mancarella. 

Student opinion seems to be unified. “It’s a very small change, but it’s still more inclusive,” says Mateo Mendez. 

Social media seems to be the main information spreader for students, “I found out through Instagram, someone posted it on the West Orange Schools Instagram account,” says Brynn Sanner. “It’s probably a good idea that they’re doing that instead of getting rid of it altogether.”

Shane Donagher believes you don’t lose anything from being more inclusive, “It doesn’t hurt anyone. I think people might be freaking out about there being two kings or two queens, but it shouldn’t concern them! It just gives people more options to use what they want to be called.” 

Freshmen and Sophomore students said similar things. “I think it’s good that there’s going to be homecoming royalty. I think it’d be a better opportunity for everybody to have a better chance of not ripping each other’s hair out just for that little crowd,” says Grey, a freshman. 

“It’s important to switch terms to get some more balance,” says Atlas, a sophomore.