Parent Promotes Safe and Sane ‘Grad Nights’

If Lori Warmington’s dream comes true, someday a warehouse in Orange County will brim with settings and props to rival any Hollywood studio.

Warmington isn’t trying to make Hollywood musicals. Her goal is to make it easier for more high schools in Orange County to sponsor drug-free, alcohol-free, all-night graduation parties on school campuses. The props and settings would be party decorations.

“The warehouse would be like a Universal Studios lot,” Warmington said. “Schools would leave their props there after their parties, and other schools could make use of them.”

Although the warehouse hasn’t been realized yet, another part of her dream is coming true: more high schools in Orange County are adopting drug- and alcohol-free “grad night” parties sponsored by parents.

‘Safe and Together’

“The concept is to offer an all-night party for graduating seniors at their high schools so that they’ll all be together, safe in one location,” Warmington said.

Warmington, of Newport Beach, is a partner in her husband’s development firm, the Robert P. Warmington Co. She first became involved in grad night work about three years ago, when her son, Drew, now 19, was attending Newport Harbor High. “Parents start helping with other senior parties when their children are sophomores and juniors,” she said.

By last year, when Drew was a senior, Warmington was in full swing, working for and promoting the Newport Harbor High grad night.

“It was fun, and I started thinking that it would be wonderful if more high schools used this idea,” she said.

Laguna Beach High launched the concept in Orange County 10 years ago, Warmington said. “Then Corona del Mar started theirs eight years ago, and Newport Harbor High now is having their fourth year.”

Thanks to publicity about those parties, Estancia High in Costa Mesa and Marina High in Huntington Beach are starting grad parties this year, she said. University High in Irvine is planning its first for 1987.

The graduating seniors at the high schools pick the theme for their party. Thereafter, the parents do all the work. Many months before graduation night, the parents build elaborate sets and props. They hire dance bands and other live entertainment. They arrange for vast amounts of food and non-alcoholic drinks.

When the seniors arrive on graduation night, they see their gyms and campuses transformed. Last year, for instance, Newport Harbor High’s theme was “An Evening in Paris.”

Security is strict, and attendance usually is limited only to graduating seniors. The only money students spend during the night goes for admission, which this year ranges from $20 to $35 per person, Warmington said.

“There are many schools that have parties for graduating seniors at amusement parks, and those are wonderful,” she said. “But some of those parties are as early as mid-May, and they don’t give the kids a place to go on graduation night. And graduation night, the California Highway Patrol has told me, is the most dangerous and volatile night.”

Reduces Driving

Warmington said that having the grad night party at the seniors’ high school reduces driving. “Parents feel relieved, because they know that once the kids enter the building, they’re going to be there all night and will be safe,” she said. The seniors agree, on entering the party, not to try to leave before the event is over, usually at 5 a.m. or later.

“This works,” Warmington said. “The kids like it, there is almost 100% participation, and the police statistics show that kids in these schools aren’t getting into accidents or getting arrested on their graduation nights.”

Warmington and other parents are making a video documentary to show other schools “how the grad night parties are done. We’re also writing a ‘how-to’ book.”

Schools and parents wishing more information, she said, can write to Grad Night, 939 Via Lido Soud, Newport Beach, Calif. 92663.

Requests have come from schools in San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. “I would like to see this spread to all schools in Southern California, and then across the U.S.A.,” she said.

“This is definitely an idea whose time has come.”