Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Clean and Sober Party Planned for High School

Huntington Beach High School has become the latest in the county to join the trend of high schools urging students to choose a drug-free, alcohol-free graduation night celebration.

Grad parties are all-night events following a high school’s formal graduation. The parties are usually staged on the high school campus, with parents creating the elaborate theme decorations. Graduating seniors are treated to dance bands and all the food they can eat.

At a meeting Wednesday night, parents of Huntington Beach High students made plans for the school’s first grad night party when the 1989 class graduates in June.

The request for having a grad night “came from the seniors themselves,” said Pat Will, head of the new Huntington Beach High Grad Night Committee. “We had senior representatives who came to us parents and asked to get this moving.”

Huntington Beach High had been the only high school in the Huntington Beach Union High School District without a grad night celebration.

The nonprofit Grad Night Foundation, based in Costa Mesa, helps high schools start the parties. Foundation president Lori Warmington of Newport Beach said about half the high schools in the county “now have these safe events on graduation night, and we’re hoping that in the next two years, all the high schools in the county are taking part.”