At Claremont High School’s Homecoming football game, the Homecoming royalty was revealed: King Aarion and King Elijah. The idea of there being two kings on homecoming court angered not only parents of CHS students but also CHS alumni and hundreds of people online. With accounts like @libsoftiktok, an X account with 4.5 million followers, posting about the situation with the following caption:
“Two boys just won ‘homecoming royalty’ at a school in Claremont, California—
They changed the title to ‘royalty’ from ‘king & queen’ to be more ‘inclusive’— Too bad for all the girls who worked hard trying to win homecoming queen.”
Over hundreds of people replied to the post, agreeing, saying they were not surprised because it was California, a liberal state. Posts claimed the school was misogynistic and removing opportunities from girls, mentioned the race of both kings, referred to it as gay, and made many other accusations.
The whole idea of a high school homecoming royalty causing this much outrage for people who do not even live in California and are not at all connected to the Claremont community is not representative of the inclusive Claremont High culture. Years previously, the decision of a gender-neutral title was made to be inclusive towards gender-fluid, nonbinary, etc. students. Outside of inclusivity, accusations online targeting the race of the Homecoming royalty are unfathomable.
In reality, there is no malice behind the winners’ motives; they were simply happy to celebrate with each other. Homecoming King Aarion Kennebrew shared initial excitement about the Homecoming experience before the outrage occurred.
“It was great winning with my best friend,” Kennebrew said. “It’s definitely going down in the books, and going to always stay in my mind.”
For there to be backlash on the kids themselves is unacceptable. Children should feel safe in academic spaces, and a trivial Homecoming win should not turn into concerns about their personal safety. Kennebrew expressed confusion over the feud.
“I feel like it was funny hearing about it and on the surface it wasn’t that bad and then I read more comments and it […] was just like why are people saying this,” Kennebrew said. “It didn’t hurt my feelings […] I was just confused because they made no sense. It was funny to see me and Elijah get famous over something we had no power over, which made it more weird.”
At the end of the day, Homecoming is simply a high school event and it should not have this much of an impact on people not a part of the Claremont community. The basis of Homecoming is to welcome and celebrate students, emphasizing inclusion. It is not an excuse to make children feel unsafe and judged.
