Sunday, December 04, 2005
Prom Cancellations
Two Catholic high schools in suburban New York City have cancelled their traditional senior dances, known as proms, because of concern about students' lavish spending.
"The prom itself is not the issue, it's the excessiveness that surrounds it," said the Rev. James C. Williams, president of Chaminade High School, an elite boys school in Mineola, on Long Island.
"It's all about who has the biggest limousine. Who has the most over-the-top evening planned. Who has the best story to tell when the event is over. Can anyone really claim any of this is compatible with maturity, let alone the Gospel?"
Williams told Newsday that students regularly spend $1 000 (about R6 500) on prom items such as tuxedos and flowers. There's also spending on pre-prom and post-prom parties.
A few weeks ago, Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, also on Long Island, called off its prom due to similar concerns.
Last spring there, 46 students put down $10 000 to rent a house in the chic Hamptons area for a party after the prom. The principal, Brother Kenneth Hoagland, said he had heard about pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo, and fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise."
"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, fed up with what he called the "bacchanalian aspects."
Senior students are usually about 17 or 18 years old. The legal drinking age in the United States is 21.
Both Kellenberg and Chaminade are run by the same Marianist order.
Some students are not happy with the decision.
"To have this taken from us is like a dagger to the heart," said Shane Abrams, 17, a Chaminade senior. "It's a shock. It's a big loss."
Already, there's a petition circulating to save the tradition at Chaminade, but there's also talk of alternatives, including a trip to an amusement park, Newsday reported in its Friday editions.
And while some students were upset, others defended the cancellation.
"The prom itself no longer matters to these kids," said Chaminade second-year student Sean Rober, 16. "It has become a vehicle for night-long debauchery, not a fun rite of passage to end the year with, and so it was cancelled. I think it was the right thing." - Sapa-AP
From here.
"The prom itself is not the issue, it's the excessiveness that surrounds it," said the Rev. James C. Williams, president of Chaminade High School, an elite boys school in Mineola, on Long Island.
"It's all about who has the biggest limousine. Who has the most over-the-top evening planned. Who has the best story to tell when the event is over. Can anyone really claim any of this is compatible with maturity, let alone the Gospel?"
Williams told Newsday that students regularly spend $1 000 (about R6 500) on prom items such as tuxedos and flowers. There's also spending on pre-prom and post-prom parties.
A few weeks ago, Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, also on Long Island, called off its prom due to similar concerns.
Last spring there, 46 students put down $10 000 to rent a house in the chic Hamptons area for a party after the prom. The principal, Brother Kenneth Hoagland, said he had heard about pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo, and fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise."
"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, fed up with what he called the "bacchanalian aspects."
Senior students are usually about 17 or 18 years old. The legal drinking age in the United States is 21.
Both Kellenberg and Chaminade are run by the same Marianist order.
Some students are not happy with the decision.
"To have this taken from us is like a dagger to the heart," said Shane Abrams, 17, a Chaminade senior. "It's a shock. It's a big loss."
Already, there's a petition circulating to save the tradition at Chaminade, but there's also talk of alternatives, including a trip to an amusement park, Newsday reported in its Friday editions.
And while some students were upset, others defended the cancellation.
"The prom itself no longer matters to these kids," said Chaminade second-year student Sean Rober, 16. "It has become a vehicle for night-long debauchery, not a fun rite of passage to end the year with, and so it was cancelled. I think it was the right thing." - Sapa-AP
From here.
