Charter Bus Chaperones Arrested at School Dance

Drinks were flowing when two chartered buses pulled up to Calabasas High School to deliver about 60 students to a school dance on Saturday night.

But fists started flying when school officials and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies tried to confiscate the alcohol and question chaperones who accompanied the student pickup and delivery service.

Three adults were arrested and scores of students face suspension from school after the altercation outside the school’s annual “Vice-Versa” dance, authorities said Monday.

A sheriff’s deputy and a school vice principal were assaulted and the school’s glass front door was smashed, according to sheriff’s officials.

“It was quite a donnybrook,” Lt. Jerry Conklin said.

“I’m very tempted not to have any more dances at the school. Very tempted,” said Robert Ross, principal of the high school.

Students blamed overzealous authorities for the clash, which occurred after they spent $31 per couple to charter the buses.

Support From Parents

They received support Monday from parents. “It seems to me the kids were treated in a highly undignified manner,” said parent Ted Sirkin, a Hidden Hills resident. “I started action to file a police brutality charge.”

Arrested on suspicion of misdemeanors ranging from from obstructing a peace officer to bringing alcoholic beverages onto school grounds were three 21-year-old Van Nuys residents--Dana Sharon Mason, Kari Ann Chezum and Paul Kingston Martin--whom authorities said were volunteer chaperones on one of the buses.

Ross said deputies were asked to check the buses for alcoholic beverages after parents complained of drinking on charter buses and limousines rented by students for previous dances at the school, located in an upper-middle-class neighborhood.

“These buses and limos are filled with booze. It’s very common,” Ross said. “I’ve had demands from parents for breathalyzers and for searching kids at these dances.”

School officials are investigating the incident and plan to order five-day suspensions for students who carried alcoholic beverages onto the buses, he said.

Conklin said deputies seized beer, wine coolers, champagne, vodka and a bottle of expensive French wine, along with four ice-filled coolers.

But he did not blame the students for the altercation.

“Our deputies were attacked by the adults, not by the students,” Conklin said. “Chartering buses is clever, if you’ve got the bucks. But the kids used poor judgment.”

The brawl occurred in a school office after deputies escorted the adults inside for questioning, Conklin said. John Murphy, a vice principal, pulled one of the chaperones off a deputy’s back as the glass door was kicked in by another suspect, he said.

Deputies will try to determine who supplied the alcoholic beverages to the students to learn more about the unusual bus charter.

Sheriff’s officials said the bus drivers’ role in the incident is also being investigated. “They didn’t escape our scrutiny,” Conklin said.

Met at Students’ Homes

Students said they hired the buses to travel to the dance together and to avoid the possibility of classmates driving home from the dance drunk. They said they met the buses at several students’ homes and planned to stay at those houses overnight after the dance.

Tony Sirkin, a 17-year-old senior, said about 10 students saw Chezum knocked through the glass front door by a deputy. “She would have gone through head-first if she hadn’t put her feet out,” he said.

After their names were written down by school officials, the 60 students were allowed to attend the dance--called a “Vice-Versa” because girls ask boys to attend--with about 150 other youths, according to another senior, Denise Baughman, 18.