Fed Up with 'Bacchanalian Aspects,' Catholic School Axes Prom
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
October 24, 2005
(AgapePress) - The principal of a Catholic high school in Long Island, New York, is defending his decision to cancel the school's annual prom because of "mounting excesses" associated with the event.Some parents of students at Kellenberg Memorial High School are still angry with a letter Principal Kenneth Hoagland sent them at the start of the school year. In that correspondence [PDF], Hoagland notified them the school would no longer sponsor a spring prom -- not merely because of problems with sex, alcohol, and drug use surrounding the event, but also because of "the flaunting of affluence" and "financial decadence" the event had come to represent. He had also conveyed his concerns earlier -- and the possibility of the 2006 prom might be cancelled altogether -- in a March 2005 letter [PDF].
According to Hoagland, every year the prom because more excessive. "It was becoming common that the prom extended into a weekend -- and the weekend took place at a beach house or some other place where the students would be unsupervised," Hoagland says. "There would be drinking involved; in some cases, drugs. And then with that, some students would be involved in a lot of sexual activities as well because they were unsupervised and their judgment is really impaired at that time with alcohol."
In the more recent letter, Hoagland explained Kellenberg Memorial High School is "withdrawing from the battle and allowing the parents full responsibility." The school, he said, "is willing to sponsor a prom -- but not an orgy."
Hoagland doubts that parents who are planning to organize a prom for their children would adequately monitor the event. He points out that, with the help of their parents, some students have been spending $1,000 on the event to cover the cost of such things as formal dresses, rental of tuxedos, flowers, limousine rental, and parties before and after the prom. Those post-prom galas, says Hoagland, introduced major problems.
"And all those activities afterward, even though they weren't necessarily a part of the prom we were sponsoring, were all associated with it," the principal explains, "and we no longer wanted to be the springboard for behavior that is contrary to four years of the education that we've been giving to the students."
Among the excesses Hoagland pointed out in his April 2005 letter was a $10,000 down payment to rent a party house in the Hamptons. He claimed at that time to have in hand a copy of the signed rental contract acknowledging use of the house for 36 hours by 60 students and giving no indication of liability or supervision during that time. The agreement, which would have ultimately netted the owner a total of $20,000 for the short rental period, was eventually cancelled. But Associated Press reports some parents went ahead and rented a house in the Hamptons anyway.
Parents at Kellenberg, which calls itself a "Catholic school in the Marianist tradition," pay more than $6,000 a year in tuition.
