The Prom(s) Will Go On At Beverly High School

BEVERLY, MA — The prom will apparently go on in Beverly this spring.

Perhaps, more than one of them.

After being forced to cancel the traditional senior prom last spring amid the onset of the coronavirus health crisis, the school is proceeding with caution this spring as it looks to give students a taste of the social interaction they have been missing for more than a year.

A senior prom has been scheduled for June 3 — five days after the state is set to increase indoor gathering restrictions to 200 people indoors and 250 outdoors — at the Willowday Estate in Topsfield.

Tickets will be sold individually starting Monday at the main office of Beverly High School.

School officials said attendance at the prom will be capped at 150 students. If there is enough interest, a second prom may be added.

In the event there are two proms, students will be able to choose which date they want to attend as long as space allows.

The prom push comes three weeks after the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issued guidance urging districts to cancel proms once again this year because proms are "an inherently high-risk activity, as it is a social gathering that involves dancing and singing (both of which are activities with increased respiration)."

The education department advised holding "alternative celebrations" or postponing traditional proms until after the end of the school year.

That was before Gov. Charlie Baker last week mapped out an end to coronavirus-related business restrictions that include the dramatic increase in social gathering limits on May 29 and the elimination of all business restrictions by Aug. 1 — possibly sooner, he said, if virus metrics and vaccination rates allow.

High school students ages 16 or older are currently eligible for the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Only those 18 or older are eligible for the Modern and J&J vaccines.

Moderna said this week it hopes to gain emergency authorization for its vaccine for those ages 12 to 17 soon.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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