Does this mean a whole generation of alienated youth who never got to go to the prom, waiting to take their revenge in those teen slasher movies?!!!




The Guardian

Prom night, that iconic moment in the life of almost every American teenager, is under unprecedented scrutiny after a Long Island school cancelled its prom on the grounds it had become an overpriced "orgy" of drugs, alcohol and sex.Kellenberg Memorial High School's decision to scrap an event it described as "an exaggerated rite of passage that verges on decadence" is the culmination of decades of debauchery.
More than 70 years ago, the society wit, Dorothy Parker, reportedly observed that: "If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised."

Since then, films from American Graffiti to American Pie have made prom night an emblem of excess. However, for Kellenberg, a private Catholic school in an affluent seaside suburb of New York, this spring's prom was too "bacchanalian" to bear, and the administrators circulated a letter to parents accusing them of connivance in the shenanigans and saying enough was enough. "Over the years, parents have become more active in creating the "prom experience" from personally signing for houses for a three-day drug/sex/alcohol bash, to mothers making motel reservations for their sons and daughters for after-prom get-togethers to fathers signing the contract for a ... booze cruise ... for an after-prom adventure," the letter said.
"Some have expressed the view that it is better to lose one's virginity and get drunk before going to college, so that parents are around to help."
Brother Kenneth Hoagland, the headmaster, did not return a call seeking comment yesterday, but judging from the letter he appears to have been as upset about the extravagance as the sin.
"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event ... it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake - in a word, financial decadence," he wrote.
This year, Kellenberg students put a $10,000 (£5,700) deposit down to rent a house in the Hamptons, an exclusive Long Island resort, for an after-prom party. For the prom itself, students spent up to $1,000 on dresses, dinner jackets, stretch limousines and elaborate books of photographs recording the big night.
"It's a huge issue - the role of marketing of schools. Proms really are now completely commodified events," said Amy Best, a sociologist and author of a book on the subject - Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture. The US prom industry is worth nearly $3bn, spent by 20 million students and their parents each year, according to Your Prom, a specialist magazine dedicated to planning, enjoying and surviving the event.
"When you're in high school, the prom is second only to graduation," said Cortney Pritchard, who left school three years ago and now works for a website, perfectprom.com, organising events and marketing paraphernalia. "It's one of the last moments you'll spend with your high school friends. It's a freedom thing."
It is not the first time a prom has been cancelled. In 1994, an Alabama school called it off in an attempt to curb inter-racial dating. But this is the first time that a school has balked at the rampant consumerism involved.
The cancellation has outraged Kellenberg's pupils, and some plan to organise their own event. "We're not naïve," the school's headmaster told a local television station. "Our letter is simply saying we're not sponsoring an event that allows all this to happen."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/...594605,00.html

This is certainly not the norm.

Newstyle,

I hope not. The prom is a long time tradition for students. It's bad enough that chidlren have to live in prison in most high schools, but to take away their proms isn't right. I would care if my kid's prom is worth 1,000,000 dollars, it's tradition and the chidlren needs good memories of their days of high school.

Thanx Burning Spear and CeeCee, A question for you guys, and also other US peeps what was your prom night like?

Newstyle,

Hmmm..let's see here?..........What my prom epxerience was like? I went to my 11th and 12 grade proms. Far as my 11th grade prom, it was really nice. It was held at a really nice hotel, the food was good, everybody seemed like they was having a good 'ol time. I went with a date---and pops was there! But for some odd reason I wasn't emabarassed by his presence at my prom. I guess it was meant to be. My date's car broke down amile after we left the hotel, but regardless of that incident. I laughed at it and had a great time. My 12 grade prom was another story. It was a disaster waiting to happen. First of all, thehotel that we had it at, which suposedly one of the most classy hotels in ATL, was as my mother calls it" domestic". There was no AC and I was wearing a lot of silk that day on a hot muggy evening in May. Imagine how that felt?! It was so hot that some of my classmates, danced outside.The hotel lobby reminded me of mybrother's bedroom and worse( it looked more masculine than an elegant room). It just didn't look like a room that fitted a prom. The food was dried out and a guy at the prom had a seizure--a "memorable" prom to remember .And the lights kept going on and off.

Overall ,whether it was good or bad, I wanted to go. I didn't care if I was in a hospital stretcher I had to go. I wanted some memories to pass to any kid I may have . I do that now with some of my younger cousins. I liked the idea of looking like a princess. Ever since I was a kid, that was a day I 've always looked forward to and it came to pass even though with my 12th grade prom, I would rather forget. I'm from the class of 1989 and I'm glad that I went in those times because these days many school administators are taking away the fun from the students. You speak about the proms of Long Island. Here( in Walton County GA), the school administrators are taking away extracurricular activities( particuarly going onlong trips) from the students because of the gas prices. Some fo them wasted the gas money on other frivilous things and it costed them. You turn here and turn there and itseems that all of them childhood memories and fun are being taken way from the kids and they wonder why some children want to be grown? Hmmmm............

I didn't go to my prom.Too much $$$.I was excited about going to college, high school was too slow for me.