Junior Ring takes place April 6 in the Auditorium at 7 p.m., the same date and time as the Justin Bieber concert. Juniors decided between the concert or ceremony.

The Principal of Student Affairs, Dr. Liz Baker, plans dates for the St. Teresa’s calendar the school year before. Junior class moderator, Mrs. Dianne Hirner, wrote the class officers then began the coordinating process for the Junior Ring Ceremony early this school year. This process includes producing the ceremony program, creating a seating chart, organizing the musical contributions from students, arranging sound, ordering flowers, contacting Sr. Joan Tolle to bless the rings and working with parents to organize the reception.

“I organized the seating chart at the beginning of this year by last name,” junior class officer Madi Winfield said. “The seating chart for the ceremony will stay the same despite some absences for the concert.”

The Justin Bieber concert was announced in early November, a few months after the date of the ring ceremony had been announced.

“There is almost always a conflict – some years it is a spring sport [or] Confirmation, and sometimes even work,” junior class moderator Robin Good wrote. “The decision was to stay with the scheduled and calendared date.”

The ceremony is one of the few grade specific events at STA, and one of the last times the class is together alone. Despite this, some loyal Bieber fans are not attending the ceremony so they are able to attend the full concert.

“I decided to go to JB instead because my dad paid for the ticket and was on the site waiting for hours,” junior Nicole Snow said. “I am a pretty big JB fan. I decided to go to the concert as soon as I heard he was coming to KC.”

Not all of the people going to the concert are skipping the ceremony. Some have planned to rush to the concert after the ceremony.

“At a class meeting we suggested girls with tickets have a plan in place to leave immediately after the ceremony and be dropped off for the concert since the featured artist does not typically open the concert,” Good wrote.

According to Winfield, the conflict was first noticed at the December class meeting when class officers were notified that the concert was the same night.

“When I bought my JB tickets I knew that it was the same night as junior ring so my plan was always to go to both,” junior Catherine Parra said. “When I saw that half the class was also going to junior ring I was really hoping the night could be changed so I could go to both with no conflict, even though that didn’t happen I will still be attending both.”

According to Dr. Baker the ring ceremony was started by CSJ Sisters to fully initiate juniors into the institution. The rings the juniors receive are unique to STA.

“The ceremony honors the hard junior year and parents commitment to Catholic schools,” Dr. Baker said. “The girls are named at the ceremony which is special because it recognizes that the person is special to God.”