Homecoming Favors Resemble Shot Glasses

By Brittany Morehouse WUSA-TV Washington D.C.

GAITHERSBURG, MD (WUSA) -- A letter went home to parents Tuesday following a controversial gift given to students who attended the Watkins Mill homecoming dance on Saturday. The favor appeared to be a shot glass.

However, when homecoming committee members ordered the items last year from a website, Andersonprom.com, they thought they were ordering "floating candle votives with gel inside." They received the favors in a box on Saturday and none of the "votives" contained gel inside.

"I actually polled a few students because I didn't know if I was being overly sensitive because we think a lot about the message we send to students," said Kevin Hobbs, who is serving his first year as the high school's principal. "I decided to go ahead with the distribution. We had already started to give them out and I didn't want to draw more attention to it and make a bigger deal out of it."

Students chuckled at the 3.5 oz. glass containers. Many left them at the dance and some brought them home.

"We kind of made jokes about it," said Safa Emokpae, who is a junior. "We went back to I-Hop and we studied it. We had to look for the wick. It wasn't obvious it was a candle. They had to tell us it was a candle. We just thought it was kind of ironic."

Some parents did not act so friendly when they first saw the favors. Two parents called the high school on Monday morning.

"I hit the roof - I went running back in the house, what the heck are these shot glasses doing in your car?" said Thom Robinson, whose daughter attends Watkins. "I was concerned about the message being sent through the school."

Hobbs was also upset by the mistake. He wrote a letter to the company:

'Many of our parents and students were understandably offended at the notion of a 15 or 16 year old receiving a shot glass as a homecoming party favor. We work hard with our Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) group to encourage students to make healthy choices. I am even more dismayed at the endorsement you have in your catalog from Mothers Against Drunk Driving,' he wrote.

The school is also changing its homecoming favor policy. Students will no longer be allowed to order any stemware, not even plastic cups or mugs.

"The kids want glasses and they tried very hard to get glasses that didn't send the message of drinking," said Hobbs. "I told them even a red plastic cup, anything in the context of homecoming, could be seen as promoting drinking. It's just unfortunate. I think the history and the tradition of having glasses as your souvenir - I just think those days are over - at least they are here."

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