Dance of Dismay

In a way, the kids at Huntington Park High School hope their Junior Class Ball doesn’t live up to its theme.

Problems in finding a place for the 400 11th-graders to dance the night away threaten to truly leave them “Drifting on a Memory” when Jan. 31 rolls around.

Students were shocked two weeks ago when they discovered that a La Mirada banquet hall they reserved in August for Junior Ball ’98 had been subsequently rented out to another group that beat them to the door with a deposit.

And they were jolted last week to learn that the Los Angeles dance club they hastily reserved as a replacement site has been rejected by Huntington Park school authorities as unacceptable.

That means there may not be a Junior Ball for students this year. And because the 11th-grade dinner-dance is traditionally the major fund-raiser for the next year’s senior class, that means there may not be a Senior Prom for them in 1999.

“Everything was going great,” said Martha Sandoval, the 16-year-old junior class president. “We had the food ordered, the invitations were printed and tied in bows and we were selling tickets. I even had my own date lined up.

“We had everything planned months ahead of time. Now, this.”

Sandoval and junior class Vice President Josie Mora, also 16, spent much of the summer checking out potential banquet facilities and halls before reserving a night at the La Mirada Gotham Club.

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Because of their ages, however, neither could sign a contract or write a down payment check drawing $500 from the junior class bank account to seal the $2,200 rental deal.

When classes began and the school’s junior class sponsor, math teacher Angel Durazo, called to make arrangements to deliver the check, the club manager told him to page him when he was coming and he would meet Durazo at the Imperial Highway facility.

But Durazo said the manager didn’t respond to the page when he finally traveled to La Mirada with the check earlier this month.

“I called him back and and he told me another group had reserved Jan. 31,” Durazo said. “I asked why he didn’t tell us that we had to pay by a certain time. He told me, ‘Money is money and business is business.’ ”

Frantic, Sandoval and Mora raced around the Huntington Park High campus, ripping down signs advertising the “Drifting on a Memory” dance. Then they ran for the telephone.

The pair called dozens of banquet facilities before they found one in Los Angeles’ Mid-Wilshire district that had an opening--and would let them bring in their own caterer for the barbecued chicken part of the dinner-dance.

Dinner has to be a do-it-yourself proposition “because we need to raise at least a $2,000 profit to finance our senior year,” Mora said.

The new date--Feb. 7--wasn’t all that great, because February is traditionally reserved for Valentine’s Day-themed activities at Huntington Park High.

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Neither was the Los Angeles location. Classmates started making jokes about having to wear bulletproof vests instead of tuxedos and about leaving the Junior Ball and discovering that their cars had been stolen.

School police weren’t laughing, though. On Wednesday they notified Sandoval and Mora that they feel there is too much drug activity in the area around the Los Angeles club to allow students to go.

On Friday, the pair resumed their search for a dance site with Huntington Park High student leadership advisor Raul Chagoyan urging them on. “Without the Junior Ball, you won’t have a Senior Prom,” he warned.

Back at the La Mirada Gotham Club, manager Chuck Hall was sympathetic to the teenagers’ plight.

“I do business on a first-come, first-served basis. Whoever comes in first with the money is who I book,” Hall said. When weeks went by and the high school students still hadn’t paid their deposit, he rented the club out to a family planning a girl’s 15th birthday party, he said.

Hall said he still has openings in early January and late February if Sandoval and Mora want to rebook “Drifting on a Memory.”

But the pair had better hurry, he said. “And bring the 25% deposit.”