Paper Crowns: an opinionated study of Senior Bias in Homecoming

This past weekend marked the end of Homecoming season, or week, at least.

Homecoming is a classic staple of the High School Experience; it’s your first high school dance, and it rallies all the hype from all classes for competitions in a silly game of tackle and toss. For some, it’s just another week of the same draining schoolwork. Though for others, it’s probably the most stressful week of their progressively challenging adolescent lives. Whichever you were, I bet you could feel it — the strain of everyone who cared about these competitions scattered on every wall, in front of classrooms, in the announcements, in the inescapable chatter of nominees and gossips.

One notable discussion that always bubbles to the surface is what I’ve aptly named Senior Bias. It’s pretty self explanatory — voters playing favorites particularly to the eldest of the school, based on seniority. This is typically brought up by underclassmen, understandably the ones who actually try participating in Homecoming activities and competitions. I should know; my sister and her friends were a couple of them.

Of course there are exceptions, most of them based on effort, but patterns don’t lie. It’s a pattern modeled by generations before us, written into every YA high school novel and film to have a grip on that silver-studded past. You’re supposed to enjoy your senior year, you were finally an adult. Like the Nuclear Family, being a senior, winning Homecoming royalty, was the dream of most American teens in the 90s.

That’s where the issue lies.

I believe the precedent of a life-changing and exciting senior year having been developed by high schoolers in the 90s is exactly the fuel of Senior Bias. Several schools have discussed this particular phenomena throughout the nation, possibly even the world. An article written for The Dublin Shield back in 2019 mentions these recurring events, stating how “as a result of the nostalgia that characterized the seniors’ skit…. the overall Homecoming winners, which, as witnessed throughout the past, usually does end up being the seniors” (Meier, The Dublin Shield). There’s a good chance that the reason why seniors usually win is because they always have in the past.

Or maybe they have just a bit more experience and want to finish their senior year with a bang, but who’s to say.

Meier, Brooke, and Spandana Janapati. “Senior Sweep during Homecoming Causes Controversy.” The Dublin Shield, 6 Nov. 2019, https://thedublinshield.com/showcase/2019/11/06/senior-sweep-during-homecoming-causes-controversy/.