Fun And Safety Are Focus For Homecoming Week

Costume contests, parades, dances and football games … all the Homecoming fun will light up Redwood High School this week.

"Homecoming is great. We have activities every day at lunch," Redwood principal David Sondheim said. "And every year we seem to elect Homecoming courts and kings and queens who exemplify the good character of Redwood students. They're great kids."

The Homecoming princes and princesses will parade through Corte Madera and Larkspur on Saturday, starting at 1:15 p.m. The parade route starts at the school's east parking lot, then continues along Tamal Vista and up Tamalpais Drive through Corte Madera, then along Magnolia Avenue and down Doherty Drive before entering the football stadium ahead of the Homecoming game against San Marin at 2 p.m.

Redwood is 1-3 in the Marin County Athletic League, while San Marin is 2-2.

This year's court includes Edwin Flores and Mari Best, Soroosh Pourmehraban and Tory O'Dwyer, Jeff Calzaretta an Hannah Daffern, Parker Reis and Martha Greenburg, Mikey Julian and Grace Ahlbom, and Emmet Hayden and Lizzie Ahern. The king and queen will take the spotlight at the dance Saturday night.

Faculty at Redwood are focused on keeping Homecoming a fun and safe event for everyone. The school has sent out letters to parents regarding the social host ordinance and what is expected of both students and parents.

"We want to help parents. They need to know who their children will be with at Homecoming if they go somewhere before or after the dance," Sondheim said.

The ordinance can hold parents and children accountable when alcohol is served to minors at parties, whether or not the parents are home. There has been some resistance to the new ordinance from parents reported, but Sondheim believes it will ultimately prove effective in curbing underage alcohol and drug use.

Sondheim says there will be several chaperones on campus for the Homecoming dance, including staff, faculty, parents and police, but it's difficult to control what happens off campus.

"The ordinance is great. It has the same message we're trying to send as a school," Sondheim said. "It can help parents avoid the accidental parties that sometimes happen when they're not home. They should know the house is secured and there isn't a party happening that they're not expecting. The ordinance raises the responsibility of parents. It lets them know it's not OK to serve alcohol to kids under 21. If kids are drinking at someone's house before the dance, the problem can end up with us. Drinking would be putting young people at risk, because they are likely driving before or after the dance."

Redwood's Red Ribbon crew will also be raising awareness about underage drinking with on-campus activities this week.

Students at Redwood will celebrate with a buffet of Homecoming events on campus this week, including karaoke, game shows and spirit days. The theme for this year's Homecoming happens to be board games (Monopoly, Clue, Candy Land and Life).

To learn more about preventing underage drinking, click here.