Should Prom Dates Be Randomly Assigned? Illinois School's Tradition Makes Headlines

FREEPORT, IL -- It's hard enough to ask someone out on a date -- and can be even harder when you're still a kid and the fate of your senior prom is at stake.

One Illinois Catholic school has taken that nerve-wracking aspect out of prom season. For the 91st year, students at Aquin High School were assigned dates in a random drawing. The tradition was created in 1926 to make sure every student had a date for the prom.

RELATED: Is Illinois Catholic School's Prom Dress Code Body Shaming?

Here's how it works, according to local station WREX: Junior and senior boys head to the library to choose their dates' names in a random drawing, while girls wait for them in the gym. Then, the boys come out and perform a skit before revealing the name of their date. If there is an odd number of juniors and seniors, younger students can be included in the drawing, according to the Today Show.

"I think a lot of people are actually intrigued by it," junior class advisor Michelle Gallagher told WREX. It's less of a date and more like something fun to do with your classmates."

Senior Korey Korosec said he likes the tradition because it makes everyone feel welcome. “No matter who you get, you know you’re going to have a good time," he said. "It doesn’t leave anybody out."

It does, of course, mean that your prom date is literally the luck of the draw.

While the tradition may be nearly a century old, it's making news. Aquin's prom procedure has been covered by Yahoo! Style, Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue, to name a few.

In the age of elaborate "promposals," expensive dresses, hair and makeup -- not to mention the limo and the flowers -- Aquin's prom process might seem like an easy way to take some of the stress out of prom planning. But viewers of the Today Show were overwhelmingly opposed it. Eighty-three percent of people who voted in a poll asking "should schools assign prom dates?" voted no.

"This is worse than the 'everyone gets a trophy,'" one fan tweeted.

What do you think? Should high schools randomly assign prom dates? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Image via Patch file