LHS had an out-of-this-world Turnabout this year. It was the day where guys could safely tell girls (wearing white dresses) “you light up the room” without the worry of being embarrassed if rejected.

According to Ms. Andrea Lara, a Student Council advisor, LHS had “just under 1,000 students in attendance at this year’s Turnabout Dance,” which is up from the 850 students who attended last year, making this year’s numbers a school attendance record.

Due to a lack of attendance, many area schools have canceled their winter dances, yet LHS is still going strong with its turnout.

In the week leading up to the dance, students participated in school spirit days. This year’s themes included Goodnight Moon, Space Jam, Attack of the Clones, and Neon Day.

On Thursday during lunch periods, a DJ set up his decks in the lunchroom and started spinning tracks. Some students competed in dance-offs for free t-shirts, while others sat and ate, enjoying the free entertainment, or sat in a state of annoyance.

“I think it was a fun idea,” said freshman Parker Jackim. “However, people were annoyed, [but] I enjoyed it though!”

Many people who wore neon for the last spirit day were pleasantly surprised on Friday because the assembly was primarily blacklit, making those who wore neon glow.

During this year’s assembly, as tradition follows, the Select 16 were escorted into the gym by the Honor Court, consisting of 16 girls chosen by LHS faculty for their above and beyond personality and achievements.

The Select 16 then debuted their self-promo videos that ended with their best memories and advice to underclassmen. Competition was tough, yet in the end, only one guy was left standing. Out of all the guys, Riley Lees was crowned 2016’s Turnabout King.

Both poms and cheer did performances for the student body as well. The cheer team wore special makeup and tape on their outfits to make themselves glow under the black lights.

As usual, the students in attendance at the assembly were divided up by grades. Each grade battled it out during a sing-off, with the sophomore class ending up singing for the longest time span. Following shortly after, toilet paper guns were brought out along with glowing balls to hype up the students.

Of course, there are always highlights of the actual dance that make them stand out from others in the past, whether good or bad.

When it came time for the Select 16 to enter into the gym with their walkout partners, there was confusion as to where an aisle should be made in the crowd, which ultimately led to two small separate aisles being made.

A few select students took this situation to their advantage and jokingly walked down one of the aisles waving and dancing while pretending to be one of the Select 16.

This year’s “special effects” were much different than previous dances. There were confetti cannons that rained down glowing confetti when the bass dropped unlike last year’s dance, where Pixy Stix-like candy powder was thrown out.

“The confetti that was blasted finished the night off perfectly,” said sophomore Jocelyn Stephenson.

Unlike last year, where song requests were done online, this year’s requests were done by going directly to the stage at Turnabout and writing these requests on a sheet of paper. While this was not known by many students, it was deemed more effective for requests to be granted than previous request methods. After a student would write down a song request, the paper went directly to the DJ, who placed the song into his playlist of upcoming tracks.

“I really enjoyed it! I think [Student Council] did a really great job this year. The space theme with the black lights were especially great,” stated Jackim.