PLACENTIA : Bingo Tentatively OKd for Schools

School trustees gave tentative approval this week to a proposal that would allow a parent booster club to hold bingo nights at Esperanza High School.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District board members voted 4 to 1 Tuesday in favor of a new policy allowing bingo at the district’s four high schools. A group of parents at Esperanza High School plans to hold weekly bingo nights to help fund classroom and extracurricular activities.

Jan Thuney, a member of the Aztec Booster Club, said that bingo nights elsewhere have proved more effective than fund-raising activities such as washing cars and selling candy. She added that fewer businesses would have to be constantly pressed for financial support.

Supporters said that bingo at other schools has brought in as much as $12,000 in one night. A school in Diamond Bar even raised enough to finance the construction of a new science lab, proponents told the board.

“It can only benefit, even if it is a stopgap method,” Teresa Weissman, a parent at Esperanza, told the board at a recent meeting. “We’re trying to do something about our situation.”

Still, some residents and a trustee said they were worried that bingo would promote gambling.

“We have to consider, what message does it give out to our students?” said Trustee Barbara Williams, who voted against the proposal. “It really puts us in the position of saying gambling is OK.”

Under the plan, bingo nights would be held once a week year-round. Parents would run the games, and a 10-officer board would oversee its operation. Students would be allowed to set up and clean the facilities, but minors would be barred from bingo halls. In addition, Esperanza students 18 years and older would be prohibited from playing.

Several parents objected to a plan to allow smoking in the gymnasiums during the bingo games, fearing children would be exposed to the smell of smoke the next day and that it would damage school property.