Long Beach : Officials Plan to Beef Up Security at Student Dances

Popular teen-age dances in East Long Beach will continue with twice as many security guards, school officials said Tuesday.

District officials had considered ending the dances at the Bruin Den, a recreation center on 7th Street near Wilson High School, after a fight at a recent dance and a shooting in a nearby park, said Jerry Gross, area superintendent for the Long Beach Unified School District. “We’ve had over 120 nights of successful dance and only two nights (of violence). That’s a decent record,” Gross said.

The number of private security officers at the dances will increase from two to four, said parent Susan Ingram, who helped start the dances as an alternative to alcohol-oriented parties five years ago. The dances draw about 400 teen-agers.

The events have become so popular that about 100 students were turned away from the Oct. 2 dance. One student became angry, threatened a woman volunteer and swung at a police officer. The same night, another teen-ager was shot while walking to the dance, about a block away.

Ingram is working to open another dance facility in Long Beach, to accommodate the extra students, she said. The dances are organized by a student committee and cost $12,000 to $15,000 a year. The money is raised through donations and the $2-per-student cover charge.