Date Arrives for Divided School Prom

Tonight, on prom night, senior David Bailey will go down in Dana Hills High history for making a scene.

Against half his classmates’ plans, against the administration’s wishes, against tradition, Bailey and partner Nick Green, a Dana Hills alumnus, will stage an alternative prom--cheaper and better, they say--that coincides with the school-sanctioned prom.

The 18-year-olds have managed to split the senior and junior classes (those eligible to attend the dance) on an evening that would otherwise unite them. Individually, students have struggled with friends and dates over which prom to attend. Teachers who volunteered to chaperon the alternative prom are getting flak from co-workers. Parents trying to sift through rumor and reality have bombarded the school with phone calls.

“We’re not really breaking tradition. A prom is where students at a school get-together on the same night in a formal atmosphere,” says Bailey, a budding capitalist who would have thrived in the yuppie ‘80s. Besides Conquest Enterprises, a mobile deejay business he owns with Green, he operates an apparel venture with his family and says he has other plans in the works.

“With our event,” says Bailey, “they’re still going to a prom. People aren’t going to spend the money twice, so it’s not a matter of conflict with the school. Conquest ’95 [as it’s billed] is just the alternative.”

Alternative proms are nothing new. But while they have been held for reasons of sexual orientation or racism at other schools across the country, Bailey says that theirs is not about social issues. It’s about economics.

The official school prom at the Newport Beach Marriott is $80 per couple and includes hors d’oeuvres and dessert stations, casino tables, a deejay and a band of Dana Hills alumni that recently toured with Green Day. Raffle prizes run from massages to TVs to mountain bikes.

Conquest ’95 at the Anaheim Marriott is $60 a couple and features a dinner buffet and dessert station, a cappuccino bar, casino tables, a caricaturist, karaoke, laser lighting and a complimentary long-stemmed rose to every young woman. Bailey and Green will deejay. Giveaways include sunglasses, free haircuts, pagers, a cellular phone and a 25-inch television.

Videos of the big night will be sold, including, notes Bailey, all the coverage that the duo expect to get after a week spent phoning and faxing news organizations. Their media savvy skills are remarkable. Besides a small portfolio of news stories involving this controversy, the two made sure they got ink when they formed their company last year, selling themselves on the angle that they can do better than older deejays in their 20s.

Generation Next strikes already.

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Once upon a time, something “alternative” didn’t necessarily mean better, just different. But with the onslaught of do-it-yourself, anti-corporate enterprises as Lollapalooza, ‘zines and the Lab anti-mall, anything alternative is so very in among teens. It plays into the age-old need for rebellion that lets youth distinguish its own identity and find its own place as new adults in the real world. The Conquest ’95 dance has capitalized on this sentiment.

While cost was a factor in senior Devon Costello’s decision to attend the alternative prom, she admits dissent was definitely another. “Finally somebody is doing something different against the school. It’s something the kids want,” says the 18-year-old.

Junior Katie Groves, 16, says she couldn’t have been happier when the Conquest prom was announced. “To me it’s like a renegade thing, sort of. I thought in some way we as young people, we’re taking a stand on our own. Everyone’s so hyped about it. I’m shaking.”

Mike Page, 17, is shaking too--his head, that is. Says the junior class president: “People don’t realize that by not going [to the school prom] they’re only hurting themselves next year. The money raised goes directly to the [incoming] senior class. It’s hard to get students to understand that though.”

Juniors are responsible for putting on the senior prom annually, spending much of the year planning the gala. The senior prom has been a fund-raiser for the following year’s senior class since the school began holding them in 1975.

Indeed, most students say they have no idea where the money goes, assuming it’s poured into the school’s operating fund; Page says it benefits senior class activities. What’s more, they can’t understand the $20 discrepancy in the ticket prices.

Much of the cost for each prom comes from hotel bills. The Anaheim Marriott is charging $7,000 to Conquest while the Newport Beach Marriott costs $15,000.

Dana Hills High activities director Dianne Johnson says she has discussed the difference with the hotel. While Marriott has agreed to compensate the high school for any losses that arise from booking the dueling dances on the same night, she says the hotel can only tell her that the Anaheim contract with Conquest may be less elaborate than theirs.

Ned Snavely, general manager for the Anaheim Marriott, agreed that factors such as the number of attendees, the hours of operation and the food stations could influence the price. But both sides are expecting a similar number based on ticket sales--220 at the school prom, 259 at Conquest. The school prom runs from 7 p.m. to midnight; Conquest goes from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. The Anaheim hotel’s buffet includes carved meats and pastries versus finger foods and sundaes at the Newport Beach hotel.

Though both hotels regularly provide security for any scheduled event, Snavely says that “because of the controversial nature of [the Conquest] event, we are stepping up security.”

Bailey’s father, Mark, will supplement hotel security through his business, which employs security personnel at its adult entertainment clubs. And they have recruited family members and their parents’ friends to chaperon. “We’re overdoing everything so everyone feels safe,” says David Bailey.

Safety is an issue that class officers and the school have invoked since word of the competing prom got out. School officials have mailed letters to parents informing them that Conquest ’95 was not sanctioned by the school and that they could not confirm there would be any chaperons present.

“It’s tempting for a high school kid to go to a thing that’s not supervised and where they’re not held accountable for their actions,” says Johnson, the activities director. “They could lose senior privileges--going to the senior picnic and even graduation--if they get caught doing something they’re not supposed to.”

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Innuendoes and rumors have kept Dana Hills High students abuzz since Bailey and Green were caught passing out flyers advertising the alternative event in late March. School policy permits only the promotion of school-sponsored events. As class officer Page puts it: “They seem to think the school is a free marketplace. It’s not.”

The Conquest duo decided to host their own event when the school declined their offer to deejay the prom. The school already had an annual contract with another deejay, a former Dana Hills student and fervent competitor of Green and Bailey.

Bailey contends the school was never straight with them about the contract.

But school government representatives say Conquest’s proposal was given consideration but was simply not the winning bid.

Conquest’s decision to host a separate event is perplexing, they say.

“They’re not making money for the school, they’re not making profit for themselves, so why else should they do this?” asks Brooke Manning, 17. “It’s just sad if they’re doing this out of spite.”

Page and Manning say the school has received calls from local businesses confused as to whether the Conquest event is school sponsored. Students at neighboring schools have told them a billboard truck advertising the event has cruised up and down the street in front of their campuses at lunch and after school.

Manning suggests they are trying to attract customers who do not attend Dana Hill High. She points to a Conquest promotion that invites anyone to attend after 10 p.m. for $30 a couple. Green says, however, that the discounted price will be available only to students bearing a ticket from the school prom.

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Despite the competition, Manning says that the school never tried to stop Conquest.

“We just told them not to disrupt school time with their private business. My worry is Dana Hills High’s name is getting dragged through the mud. When it comes down to it, they could be offering a Porsche [as a raffle prize], and that wouldn’t change my loyalty to the school.”

But Bailey maintains that Conquest ’95 is about giving his classmates an unforgettable evening at a reasonable price. As it is, he and Green say they stand to lose money.

“We don’t like anyone telling us what we can and can’t do,” says Bailey.

Though he relishes the thought of going down in school history, he insists he’s “not doing this for me. I’m not going to have fun at my own prom. I’ll be going crazy working. People ask me if it’s going to be good. It better be, because I have another month at school to go.”