It was supposed to be a happy night, full of glamour and glitz, but Pallotti High School’s prom night was also touched with sadness, as graduates mourned the savage, senseless death of one of their own.
At the Brown Sugar Market Place, located at # 111 North Front Street, students, their escorts, faculty, family members and onlookers remembered, in a candlelight vigil before their prom, a fallen student, Neisa Pipersburgh, 18.
The scene in front of the Brown Sugar Market Place on Saturday night, June, 19, 2010, was filled with mixed emotions, as students and parents congregated to enjoy a celebration that many students anticipate throughout their high school years: prom night.
Only twenty-six Pallotti High School students were present at the prom, which started around 8:00 p.m.
“Knowing Neisa, I know that she would want us to carry out the prom,” Olvalee Lopez, 18, a fourth-year graduate of 4-Science, told us.
According to Lopez, although Neisa was not scheduled to attend the prom that night, the thought of her demise and the circumstances surrounding her death was enough to put a cloud over the normally joyous occasion.
“Our goal was to show how much we miss her here tonight,” Lopez said, in reference to the vigil.
The candlelight vigil started from the Brown Sugar location, and had the participation of about a hundred and fifty individuals, consisting of students, teachers, friends and family members, including Neisa’s mother and siblings.
Everyone, with candle in hand, took to the streets, guided by traffic control personnel, and walked from the prom location to the foot of the Swing Bridge, corner North Front Street and Queen Street, Belize City, and back.
When asked how the students enjoyed their prom experience, Neisa’s homeroom teacher Thelda Lizama, of Pallotti’s 4th form Business class, told us, “It was hard, but because we created this mellow mood (at the prom), it wasn’t that bad.”
“When we got inside (the Brown Sugar prom room), we had a little prayer for her … the students tried to make the best of it,” Lizama said.
The entire fourth-year student body passed the graduating requirements; however, only twenty-six of them carried through with their prom night commitment, even though the reality of their loss likely cast a shadow over their thoughts during the course of the night.