Special night of celebration for Valley teens

By Graig Graziosi

ggraziosi@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Special Needs Prom

Gallery

A prom for special needs students was held May 12. 2017 in Youngstown.

Students with special needs from across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties spent Friday night dancing to Top 40 songs and celebrating the end of the school year.

The occasion was the 20th annual Special Needs Prom at St. Mary’s Assumption Social Center.

The prom is hosted each year by Canfield High School and is meant to provide the students with an opportunity to experience a prom similar to those at other schools. About 200 kids attended.

Carrie Miller, a Canfield High teacher specializing in intensive needs, has attended the prom for the last four years and spent the evening dancing with her students and her student helpers.

“I think the value in our prom is that it lets these students be a part of something everyone else gets to do. Our students get dressed up, they take pictures, they dance, they ask the student helpers they work with if they’d be their dates,” Miller said. “We get to see them in a different setting than we’re used to.”

The students are encouraged to wear formal attire, and earlier in the day they were given the opportunity to have their hair and makeup done by cosmetology student volunteers at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.

The photographer, DJ and attending teachers also volunteered their time during the prom.

Sam Zitello, a junior at Western Reserve High School, has been attending the dance for three years, and said his favorite part of the evening is the dancing and getting to meet students from other schools.

Part of what makes the special-needs prom special for the kids – and genuine to the prom experience other kids get – is that parents are not allowed to hang around. Though it makes some parents nervous, ultimately the students are still well looked after thanks to their friends, teachers and student helpers, Miller said. Allowing the students to interact without parental involvement is an important social aspect of the evening, she added.

While parents aren’t allowed to stay, student helpers and the friends of the attending students are encouraged to participate in the dance.

Cassie Saylor is a senior at Canfield High and spent three years participating in the school’s “Helping Hands” course that serves as a kind of introduction to special education.

“Coming here is the best feeling in the world,” Saylor said. “It’s better than any prom I go to.”

She spent the evening dancing and hanging out with the other students attending the prom.