www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/04/05/proms.canceled.ap/index.html


NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Long Island high schools that canceled their senior proms after years of burgeoning excess that included limos and weekend house rentals in the Hamptons announced a cut-rate compromise Tuesday that will involve bus rides and other more modest arrangements.

Instead of hiring chauffeurs, students will take buses to a Manhattan pier for a dinner cruise. Instead of tuxedos and fancy ball gowns, the dress code will be jackets and ties for boys and dresses for girls.

The cost is expected to be about $100 per student -- a fraction of the cost of the wild parties of the past.

"The thing that we're most pleased about is that this recommendation came from the students," said Brother Kenneth M. Hoagland, principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York.

Hoagland sparked a national debate about the ostentatiousness and debauchery that accompany many senior proms when he said last fall that his school would no longer sponsor a prom. Weeks later, officials at nearby Chaminade High School did the same. Both are Roman Catholic schools.

Hoagland sent a 2,000-word letter last fall to Kellenberg students and parents, decrying the "bacchanalian aspects" of that school's prom.

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said in his letter.

This week, Hoaglund said the decision to cancel the prom "awakened people and gave them courage to stand up, and I think that has helped restore things to sanity."

"The students came to us ... after reading our letter, saying they understand there have been abuses and they accept that as a problem," Hoagland said Tuesday. "They would just like to have an event that celebrates their four years together and the idea of a dinner cruise was agreeable to us."

Parent Edward Lawson initially decried the decision to cancel the prom at Kellenberg, but later said he was pleased by the agreement.

"It's a great compromise. The kids stood up for themselves and the administration is going along with it," said Lawson, whose son Robert is a senior.

The Rev. James Williams, president of Chaminade, said the revised celebration "is much more consistent with the values we adhere to."

"It doesn't have all the flamboyance and the over-the-topness of 'how can I outdo somebody else,"' said Williams. In recent years, he added, the prom "became a question of who had the biggest limousine, who had the most outrageous outfit. And now all that's gone."

Why do the schools throw parties for em at all?  Its an institution of learning, not a fraternity.

If the kids want to throw their own party, thats their business.

"Did we lose a war? That's not America!  That's not even Mexico!"

-Homer Simpson

WTF?

Way to ruin people's prom. Where I come from the prom is an important part of your senior year. It's like a passageway to adult hood. Dressed in a tux, riding in a limo, eating a fancy meal at a fancy place.

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said in his letter

Puuuleeez! That's what America's about. Prom is a day when everyone gets to dabble in the nice life. What a liberal douche.

Quoted: WTF? Way to ruin people's prom. Where I come from the prom is an important part of your senior year. It's like a passageway to adult hood. Dressed in a tux, riding in a limo, eating a fancy meal at a fancy place. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said in his letter Puuuleeez! That's what America's about. Prom is a day when everyone gets to dabble in the nice life. What a liberal douche.

Clearly, you've never been to a prom at a rich high school.  Where I was from, if you didnt drop at least $500 on the suit, $300 on the shoes, $1k on the limo, dinner, and booze, (or show up in a Rolls Royce/Aston Martin/Lamborghini) you were a chump.  Let alone the hotel, house rental, or "weekend of debauchery at my parent's lake house 150 miles away".  

And I didn't even live in a super rich town.  It was the kind of place where the new Mercedes in the driveway masked the lack of equivalent (or even enough) furniture in the house.  I think it is outstanding to cut this crap down.  It was all games of oneupmanship or, more accurately, "Whose daddy has a bigger bankroll?".  

I applaud the principal for trying to fix what he could, and not try to stop their hormones.

"Now, I know you kids have certain urges, and you'll want to take your clothes off and touch each other.  If you do, you will get chlamydia and DIE.  So don't have sex.  At all.  Please?  Everyone promise me you won't have sex.  Okay?  Here, everyone take some rubbers."

Quoted: Quoted: WTF? Way to ruin people's prom. Where I come from the prom is an important part of your senior year. It's like a passageway to adult hood. Dressed in a tux, riding in a limo, eating a fancy meal at a fancy place. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said in his letter Puuuleeez! That's what America's about. Prom is a day when everyone gets to dabble in the nice life. What a liberal douche. Clearly, you've never been to a prom at a rich high school.  Where I was from, if you didnt drop at least $500 on the suit, $300 on the shoes, $1k on the limo, dinner, and booze, (or show up in a Rolls Royce/Aston Martin/Lamborghini) you were a chump.  Let alone the hotel, house rental, or "weekend of debauchery at my parent's lake house 150 miles away".   And I didn't even live in a super rich town.  I think it is outstanding to cut this crap down.  It was all games of oneupmanship or, more accurately, "Whose daddy has a bigger bankroll?".   I applaud the principal for trying to fix what he could, and not try to stop their hormones. "Now, I know you kids have certain urges, and you'll want to take your clothes off and touch each other.  If you do, you will get chlamydia and DIE.  So don't have sex.  At all.  Please?  Everyone promise me you won't have sex.  Okay?  Here, everyone take some rubbers."

I went to an upper middle class school with a "rich" part of town. I was going to get a Porsche, but they had rented them all and I had to stick with the stretch. I rented an Armani tux, had the $200 dinner at the club house of a horse track, etc . Of course in TX, it's cool to roll up in the biggest truck possible. We had a guy drive a dump truck.

That's the fun of it. I understand people think it's a bit much, but most people will never get a chance to have a night like that again in their lives. Let them live it up while they are young. Like this boring prom is going to stop them from getting drunk and having sex.

I ditched my senior prom and got drunk - in an auto parts store parking lot if I recall correctley. (Or maybe that was my graduation party.)

Quoted: I ditched my senior prom and got drunk - in an auto parts store parking lot if I recall correctley. (Or maybe that was my graduation party.)

I went to a ghetto high school, so my friends all went to Austin instead of prom and partied all weekend.  I went to my wife's when she graduated (we were dating at the time).

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Quoted: "Now, I know you kids have certain urges, and you'll want to take your clothes off and touch each other.  If you do, you will get chlamydia and DIE.  So don't have sex.  At all.  Please?  Everyone promise me you won't have sex.  Okay?  Here, everyone take some rubbers."

Why did you watch "Mean Girls"?

Kharn

Quoted: WTF? Way to ruin people's prom. Where I come from the prom is an important part of your senior year. It's like a passageway to adult hood. Dressed in a tux, riding in a limo, eating a fancy meal at a fancy place. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said in his letter Puuuleeez! That's what America's about. Prom is a day when everyone gets to dabble in the nice life. What a liberal douche.

Prom isn't a passageway to anything.

How old are you?  NOTHING that happens to you socially in high school has any bearing whatsoever on the rest of your life.  I sat with the "cool" kids at lunch and then was a closet geek when I went home.  Thinking back now, high school would have been much easier if I'd said screw it and been a geek full time, damn sure would have been less stressful.  What does any of this mean to me now?  Not a fucking thing.  

Anyone that thinks what happens in high school means anything is in for a rude awakening.

Prom isn't a passageway to anything. How old are you?  NOTHING that happens to you socially in high school has any bearing whatsoever on the rest of your life.  I sat with the "cool" kids at lunch and then was a closet geek when I went home.  Thinking back now, high school would have been much easier if I'd said screw it and been a geek full time, damn sure would have been less stressful.  What does any of this mean to me now?  Not a fucking thing.   Anyone that thinks what happens in high school means anything is in for a rude awakening.

Never went to prom, never had any friends, let alone a chance to get a chick to go with me had I asked. Nobody liked me anyways, so it would have been a total waste of money to get all duded up and hope some other loser would have danced with me (as if I could dance ).

The kids want a prom, sure. But things have gotten way out of hand with all the one-upmanship and the "Keeping up with the other kids" dept.

I applaud the principal's decision, and his willingness to come to an acceptable compromise with the kids.