ZEELAND, Mich. — Prom is a rite of passage that nearly all high school students look forward to.
This weekend, a special education teacher in Zeeland is making the special night a reality for five of her students, something she's been planning for nearly three years.
This is the first year that students in the zLinks program at Zeeland High School are old enough to go to prom, and they’re very excited.
"I'm going to prom with my best friend, Morgan, that I like very much," says Joshua Harris.
Morgan Beers, a peer-to-peer mentor, has been friends with the teens for four years. She said she didn't hesitate to pull out all the stops when asking all five of them to prom.
"My special buddy came up to and was like, ‘we're going to prom’ and like ‘get this on video, get this on video, I want this on YouTube,' It was so cute," said Morgan Beers.
It was just the beginning of all the excitement.
"It's a dark blue vest, with white a shirt and black pants," Harris says.
Their teacher, Lani Dohrman, is making sure the boys get the full experience by getting donated tuxes and boutonnières.
"It'll be all the other steps that the kids do for prom we're going to do for them," says Dohrman.
Dohrman has been planning this since she started the program three years ago, and she says she can't wait to finally see her students dance the night away.
"This is a typical tradition that all students get to do in high school so these guys should have that same opportunity as every other student in the high school and I'm really excited because we made it happen,” she said.
The teens are excited to show off their dance moves and they'll do so at the prom Saturday, April 20th.
