More weird prom news: New York high school holds proms on SCHOOL NIGHTS

[alp227]

The most notable high school prom in the US this year has been that of Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Miss. IAHS controversially excluded lesbian student Constance McMillen from attending because she wanted to take her girlfriend to prom. Although many Americans united online in support of McMillen, and the ACLU and a federal court intervened, McMillen's school secretly moved its prom to another location while leaving McMillen and a few other students (including some with learning disabilities) in a sham prom held on campus.

Yesterday, in the GLBT forum, I posted the story of two gay students at Starmount High School in Booneville, N.C. who were allowed to attend prom together.

And in today's New York Times, I found this story: "In an Effort to Curb Partying, Prom Is on a School Night"

Pearl River High School, in the city of the same name in New York located northwest of NYC and a few miles from the New Jersey border, is holding its junior prom on a Wednesday night this year and senior prom on a Sunday night so that students won't party excessively after prom. Also, the next day, "the principal and the Parent Teacher Association will be waiting at the school door: anyone not there by 7:34 a.m. sharp will be unable to make up academic work or participate in sports events scheduled for that day."

There's a deeper rationale, though:

The changes in Pearl River, a Rockland County hamlet known for its St. Patrick’s Day parade, come after the debacle of last year’s post-prom festivities, when the police broke up a party at a motel in Seaside Heights, N.J., and cited 50 students — including the son of the P.T.A. president — for under-age drinking, fining them $300 each.

Having a prom on a school night is the latest in a series of steps that parents and educators in many communities have taken to try to wrest control of after-prom traditions; other measures include sleepovers in school gyms, no-alcohol pledges, and proms scheduled for the night before graduation.

In Derby, Conn., where there were so many complaints about a school-night prom in 2008 that it has been moved to a Friday, students will go from the country-club prom to a sports-and-laser-tag complex for after-hours fun.

At Albertus Magnus High School, a Roman Catholic school near Pearl River, officials started a Disney World trip to compete with the shore; more than two-thirds of this year’s 115 seniors signed up.

High schools around the country have long had weekday proms to take advantage of lower prices at hotels and social halls, but many either schedule such events before a day off for, say, teacher development, or allow students to miss school with their parents’ permission.

snip

Mr. Furdon said he decided to move the proms because after-parties had begun to overshadow the dances. By 10 p.m., students were checking their watches and edging toward the exit to run out as soon as the king and queen were crowned. Many pooled their money to charter “party buses” — 50-seat luxury vehicles — to carry them to Manhattan or the shore.

Year after year, there were stories of drunk students throwing up on their prom finery, or wandering off alone, or ending up in the emergency room. Last year, a party bus full of juniors bound for Manhattan had to return to the school after several students drank themselves sick.

Prom 2010 will be pretty bizarre in the US I think. I'll be checking the news and DU for any other odd proms. My prom (last year, the year i grad'd from HS) was just average, nothing over-the-top really.

[Book Lover]

1. All this energy wasted over one stupid, uncool, school-organized party

If you had a great time at your prom, fabulous for you. I didn't understand the fuss then, and I don't get it now. Does no one ever have a decent dinner and dancing night out *other* than their prom in high school? In their lives? I can't believe that I was so incredibly privileged, as a decidedly middle-class girl from Queens, that I saw my prom as a step down in terms of sophistication and a fun night out.

Rant off.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

2. Proms strike me as old-fashioned and out-of-date.

It was big when I was a kid because it was a huge deal to finish high school before you went to work in the factories or mines or whatever. The last hoorah before evil reality set in, I guess. But you're right, dining and dancing is a commonplace anymore, and lots of people go on to college and university now anyway.

Where I live parents rent huge limos to transport the kids to and from, because of all the drinking and driving deaths. The cost of that one night with limos and clothes and photos etc is horrendous though.

[Missy Vixen]

3. It seems that no matter what is tried

the students are obtaining alcohol anyway. They're getting it from somewhere. Perhaps the school administration should focus on this, instead of increasingly draconian and even more ridiculous rules. (Prom on a school night? Unbelievable.)

We live in a rural area. As a result, we stay home the night of the prom and graduation night. The afterparties involved are so expensive that only half the students routinely go, and there's invariably either an accident or multiple DUI's as a result.

I went to prom when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Mostly, it was dinner out and dancing, drinking was not encouraged, but those who indulged were told by parents or friends they would be picked up by someone sober with no questions asked.

[spartan61]

4. I also went to the prom during the era of dinosaurs.

What made it so much fun was that it was held in our school gymnasium and the class worked together to decorate the gym so that it no longer looked like a gym. Then the whole class had reservations at a near by restaurant for after the prom, usually the Elmwood in Windsor, Ontario. It was not a far drive to go across the Ambassador Bridge and no passports were needed back then. I'm not talking about a small class, either. We had 350 in our graduating class and we were from a Detroit suburb. If there was any drinking, it sure wasn't obvious but I'm not going to say there was no drinking because I just don't know for sure. It sure was a simpler time.