By Linda Greer

Globe Staff Writer

Two days after authorities say they foiled what they think could have been a massacre attempt at their school, Riverton High School students donned crisp tuxes and sparkling gowns to promenade their way to a happier teenage experience.

Riverton High School seniors Daniel Koucky and Bethany Street met four other couples Saturday afternoon at Tokyo Japanese Steak House on Range Line Road in Joplin before going to prom, never considering that the long-anticipated dance might not have taken place Saturday night as planned.

“Our school is not big on canceling things,” said Koucky. “We haven’t had a snow day in two and a half years.”

Koucky said his friends from other areas were surprised nothing had been canceled in Riverton, but he was not.

Koucky said he was not frightened either, in the beginning, at school when rumors began circulating about a suspected plot by five of his peers to carry out a Columbine-type shooting. As the time on the clock changed throughout the day, so did his view of the situation.

“At first, I assumed it was blown way out of proportion,” said Koucky, who plans to major this fall in industrial business at Pittsburg State University. “Then I started to consider the actual level of the odds that it was real.”

Street said she was nervous, but that was two days ago, and just two days after she finally found a prom dress she was pleased with.

“I don’t think many people thought anything would really happen or that prom would be canceled,” said Street, who also plans to attend Pitt State.

“I would have had to change tuxes, and we had dinner reservations,” said Koucky.

Street’s mother fixed her daughter’s hair earlier in the afternoon before Koucky showed up in a fiery-orange sports car. Koucky ordered Mountain Dew with dinner and joked that he did his own hair.

The teens are two of about 60 who will graduate from Riverton High School in May. They say their classmates are mostly country kids who have known each other for years.

Riverton doesn’t have gangs, except for maybe a couple of “posers,” said Street.

“I was shocked,” she said, however, of the senior boy who was among the five arrested. “We’ve known him since first grade.”