Additional Reporting by Brennan Duman, Technical Editor.

Students and staff at Oregon City High School packed into the school’s main gymnasium  for an April 5th assembly; the subject: the annual prom dance held at NW Events & Environments in Hillsboro the next day, and the theme for the 2023-2024 school year is “Up in the Clouds.”

Oregon City High School students like senior Brennan Duman, who serves as a reporter and editor for the school’s newspaper The Elevator, said that the assembly had several unique moments compared to previous years.
“There were a couple of stand-out moments, such as the lip-sync battle,” said Duman.

As far as the impact of the assembly goes, librarian Lisa Ramage said that the assembly was the best one for the 2023-2024 school year.

“I heard from other staff members that the assembly was organized well. If you ask about my personal opinion, I think it was organized well, and it seemed to bring a positive energy to the student body. However, I could say that future assemblies could improve with student etiquette, ”  said Rammage.

The crowds at the gymnasium were introduced with a variety of  highlights, of which include a first for the school; at the assembly, a guitarist, sophomore Benjamin Quintanilla performed the national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner,  instead of a singer.

Prom royalty for the 2023-2024 school year were ushered into the gymnasium as they were flanked by JROTC members.

This included seniors Nathan Bone & Logan Schmit, who walked over to a table towards the back of the room accompanied by a Hollywood-style sign spelling out ‘PROM’.

Not all of the prom royalty were able to attend the assembly, however, and this included seniors Guthrie Romas and Delaney McFarland, both of whom were represented by cardboard cutouts. Romas and McFarland were instead attending a festival organized by Oregon Thespians.

In the theme of the 2023-2024 prom, a competition was held, “Who is drowning in drip?” where students who were ‘underclassmen’ were to wear gray whereas the ‘upperclassmen’ were to wear blue. 

For the competition, the winners earned 200 points for their grade  determined by vote through QR code. 

Afterwards, there was a relay race called “Can you beat the athlete?” presented by the school’s track and field program, one of the many athletic programs at the assembly.

To finish off the assembly, participants of the spirit day fashion contest engaged in a hula-hoop challenge, where they were supposed to finesse a hula-hoop towards the back of one of two chains first;  the ‘underclassmen’ were declared the winners by the end. 

For many at the assembly, like mathematics teacher Chelsea Brewer, the stand out moment was the  lip sync battle between teachers Mike Lord and Jeffrey Dahlin alongside security guard Sean Farrel. During the lip-sync battle, Dahlin synced to the song “Dance Monkey”. 

“I loved the lip sync battle; they really seemed into it, and I think Mike Lord definitely won,” Brewer said.