Scott Swanson
Haley Barron says she wasn’t desperate for a date when she announced on Facebook that she was looking for someone to go to the Sweet Home High School Prom with in early May.
Actually, she said, she had one particular individual in mind: Zachery Johnson.
Barron, a senior, has been a teacher’s assistant in Life Skills classes since she was a sophomore and she had developed a friendship with Johnson, a junior who has autism.
“I have a boyfriend, but I wanted to do something good for someone in the school who didn’t have good things happen to them,” Barron said, noting that she feels a lot of students in special education don’t have opportunities that others do.
Johnson said he was looking at Facebook and saw a post from Barron asking if anyone wanted to go to the Prom with her.
“I responded and she said, ‘Get your tux ready,’” he said. “That was expensive. It was $50 a day. I got it from the Natty Dresser.”
Barron said she posted “jokingly, because I have a weird sense of humor.”
“I wasn’t expecting a whole big thing; I wasn’t looking for attention. I had been thinking about it, but I didn’t really expect anybody to comment on it. When he responded, it was like, ‘OK.’”
Barron said she has relatives who have autism, and she is used to interacting with them.
She said they’ve developed a friendly relationship as she’s been a TA for Johnson’s classes.
“We were like buddies. We’d play basketball, hula hoops. I’d run after him and chase him.
I’d always wave at him. He’d yell at me across the hall. He’s a great guy.”
Prom Night started out with a trip to Taco Bell, they said.
“She and her brother and his date drove me there,” Johnson said. “We went to Taco Bell in Lebanon.
“I get the feed-yourself pack. I like the watermelon slush.”
“We got him a bunch of food,” Barron said. “Then we headed out to the actual prom.”
“It was at Yellow Gold Farm,” Johnson said. “We took the back roads. We didn’t go on the main roads.”
Barron said Johnson had “a lot of fun” until things got a little too chaotic and noisy.
“He got a little anxious. I decided it was time to head out.”
Johnson said he enjoyed it.
“It was just like a special thing,” he said. “I never went with a girl before to the prom.”