Grad Night Galas : Parents Help the Seniors Say a Safe and Sane<i> Ciao</i>

When Bill Kumer volunteered last September to help with San Clemente High School’s first grad night party, the former design engineer for Disneyland didn’t know quite what he was getting into.

This week--nine months and about $40,000 later--Kumer and dozens of other volunteers were putting the final touches on their masterpiece. Ten rooms, each representing a different exotic locale, had replaced the scuffed floors of the school gymnasium. Wooden replicas of the romantic storefronts of Old New Orleans stood where students normally did push-ups and deep-knee bends. An authentic alleyway market out of the streets of Bangkok wound through a volleyball court.

The 395 seniors graduating from San Clemente High spent Wednesday night lounging in a Japanese tearoom, dancing in a model of a French nightclub and posing for photographs among the ostriches and lions of the African jungle.

They were to be entertained from dusk until dawn with fortunetellers, music, games and prize giveaways and then treated to breakfast. The scene will be replayed in many different forms this month, as parents of the county’s graduating high school seniors throw a final bash for the students.

“They are our captives through the night,” explained party organizer Nikki Robinson, who has worked all year on a grad night party for Woodbridge High School in Irvine. “And if you can keep one kid from wrapping themselves around a telephone pole, it’s worth it.”

That’s the idea behind these gala events, which 48 out of the county’s 67 high schools planned for their graduates this year. Tickets for the fetes range from $10 to $50, and parent groups spend the year raising tens of thousands of dollars to put on the events.

Party planners say that parental creativity flourishes during the planning and construction of sometimes elaborate and intricate sets and scenery.

At Huntington High School in Huntington Beach, students last week braved pirate-infested waters for a trip to a replica of Treasure Island, where they danced to a live band in a mock-up of a huge pirate ship. At Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, parents threw a “Jamaican Farewell” for their kids, decking out the gym with palm trees and cabanas, and building the facade for an entire Caribbean island village.

And community donations can sometimes make it possible for prize giveaways too expensive for a parent group to afford. For example, at Woodbridge, Robinson said some lucky senior will win the grand prize of a trip for two on the Queen Elizabeth II to London, England (including air fare). At other parties, students will have to settle for trips to Hawaii, gift certificates or cash prizes.

For parents, planning begins in the early months of the school year, and many approach the Costa Mesa-based Grad Night Foundation for help.

“In the last 10 months, we sold 60 organizational books, and in the last two years handed out more than 2,500 free initial packets on how to get support in the community,” said Elaine Goodman, the executive director of the group. The foundation was formed in the mid-1980s by Newport Beach resident Lori Warmington to promote all-night parties without alcohol and drugs for graduating seniors.

The idea of keeping graduation night drug- and alcohol-free is the incentive for most parents to get involved. A letter to the parents of San Clemente High seniors informed parents that graduation night is one of the most dangerous nights of the year.

“Last year, the graduating seniors at San Clemente High School were scheduled to spend their grad night at Disneyland,” the letter reads. “But less than 20% attended, leaving 80%, or 400 teen-agers, on the streets, driving from party to party all night long.”

This year’s grad night party in San Clemente has been dedicated to three students--one a senior--who were killed in a car crash just a month ago.

In 1986, just four Orange County high schools held on-campus grad nights. But, according to Goodman, parents at the schools started getting calls from other PTA groups and organizers and “people started realizing that this was a really hot concept.” This year, as in Northern California and some of the East Coast states, on-campus grad nights are the parties of choice in the county.

“As close as we can gather, between 25% and 30% of the schools in the country” have on-campus parties, Goodman said. Many schools don’t stay on campus all night, instead opting to bus students to an overnight dancing and party cruise, a nearby ranch, or even to the local bowling alley.

“I think it’s not necessary to have inflated budgets,” Goodman said. “The essence of grad night is community spirit and involvement . . . and so that a parent can feel they’re part of the solution to substance abuse.”

Goodman said the California Highway Patrol considers high school graduation night to be among the four most dangerous nights for driving by teen-agers and added that law enforcement groups have been very supportive of the grad night party concept. The security at the parties is very strict, and most organizers say they won’t allow students to leave once they have checked into the party. Many parent groups have arranged for check-in areas where some students leave their purses, jackets and bags. Some schools even have the students frisked by chaperons.

Corona del Mar High School parents in Newport Beach are experts at throwing grad night galas. They had their first one 11 years ago after a PTA member forgot to reserve Disneyland for the night. Since then, the concept has really caught on, chairwoman Diane Canon said.

“It’s one last party for the kids, and it’s a labor of love,” she said, while surveying the construction of the school’s “Cosmic Odyssey.” “We’ve been working since January, every Saturday and every Wednesday, on building this stuff.”

“It’s like building Disneyland,” added her organizational partner, Amy Vieth.

For the Corona del Mar party, parents have planned a night of galactic entertainment with everything from arcade games to a lip-sync stage. The gym there is filled with props from science fiction movies: the chair from “RoboCop,” a ray gun from “Ice Pirates” and the control panels from the Star Trek television series. There are 300 aluminum-foil space trees, a 35-foot-high rocket ship, mannequins of aliens and a replica of the robot R2D2 from the movie “Star Wars.”

Parent organizer Bob Brogger says it’s worth all the effort.

“For the kids, this is their last time together,” he said, “and it’s going to be a blast that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”