Going To Prom, Just Like Everyone Else

Things are changing in the way students with intellectual disabilities experience high school. Case in point – last Friday night, five such students attended the East Greenwich High School prom without their parents or other adults as chaperones. 

Instead, they went with high school dates, just like all the other students at the prom. 

The scene unfolded as it was in backyards all across East Greenwich Friday afternoon, with impossibly lovely young women in bright-colored dresses and impeccably dressed young men in black formal wear smiling for endless photos.

It was the work of two students from East Greenwich – one from La Salle and one from EGHS – who were committed to the Best Buddies program and the newer Unified sports program. Best Buddies pairs people with developmental disabilities with typically developing peers; unified sports teams include disabled athletes and partner athletes, playing together.

Nikki Trupiano, who attends La Salle, is part of the school's Best Buddies program. Kim Whittaker has been a member of the EGHS Unified Volleyball team for the past two seasons and is involved in that school's Best Buddies group.  

Nikki said they came up with the idea after realizing that many students with developmental disabilities don't attend their proms because they would need some social supports. Nikki got some of her friends from La Salle to attend the EGHS prom with the EGHS students. 

"A few months ago, Mrs. Quinn, Patrick's mom, told me that Patrick hadn't been invited to his prom last year and he really had no idea about the prom. There was a Best Buddies Prom, but it wasn't the same as his own prom," said 
Trupiano. "We decided to start a program that I've been calling the Unified Prom ... so they could have a wonderful night full of dancing and fun."