The Prom Is WHEN????

Attention Garfield High seniors: Your prom is not tonight.

Never mind that the $62 prom ticket says May 18. Never mind that you’ve rented a tux or scheduled your hair and nails, arranged for a $400-a-night limo and--this was the hard part--gotten the night off work.

Your prom is actually in two weeks, June 1.

Assistant Principal Peter Luevano, whose duties include overseeing school activities, accepts half the blame for the mix-up, which was discovered only this week. He signed the contract with the Long Beach Hilton, which states that the prom will be held June 1, not May 18, as students have believed all year.

Luevano says he called the Hilton shortly after the contract was signed in August to see whether the date could be changed to May 18. According to Luevano, a hotel official agreed to the change.

The hotel’s director of catering, Ross Gagnon, says the hotel doesn’t have a record of any such conversation. “The bottom line is we’ve had a signed contract from Garfield from August of 2001 stating that June 1 is the date of their prom. That’s what we’ve planned for,” says Gagnon.

Besides, he adds, no hotel staffer would have agreed to such a change because May 18 has been booked for a year--for Bell Gardens High School’s prom.

“I guess after we made the change, there was this confusion,” says Luevano, who is now helping students adjust to the new date at the Hilton.

In fact, the Garfield prom snafu seems to be a case of nearly yearlong confusion. As recently as a month ago, Garfield administrators, students and a photographer sat through a meeting at the Hilton thinking they were picking out tablecloths and place settings for a May 18 prom while the hotel caterers were planning a June 1 prom.

It was only by accident that Luevano discovered just days before this weekend that the hotel was expecting Garfield’s seniors and guests--possibly as many as 690 of them--on June 1. He had called Monday afternoon to find out if school police officers, who would provide security at the prom, could wear their sidearms. When he mentioned May 18, the hotel staffer said the prom was June 1.

“I’m sad this happened,” says Luevano, “but I’m glad we called.”

Garfield students had been planning for the prom since last summer, voting on both the hotel and the date.

So when word trickled out Tuesday morning--the first hint being the new date hastily scrawled on prom tickets sold that morning--students were furious. The regularly scheduled senior class meeting, which usually has an anemic attendance of about 50, mushroomed to nearly 300 students that Tuesday afternoon. As Luevano and senior class officers entered the auditorium, students booed.

“It was like a peasant uprising,” says senior Sylvia Torres, 17, who starred as Dolly in the school’s recent production of “Hello, Dolly.” “They were all talking at the same time. Someone was saying, ‘Just get another place and go Saturday.’ But you can’t do that, unless you want to go to Shakey’s.”

There was even some resentment that Bell Gardens had the May 18 date. “We were arguing about it in the meeting--’It’s because we’re from East L.A.,’” says Susan Garcia, a 17-year-old senior.

But the brunt of their enmity was the assistant principal.

Peppered With Questions

“Everybody was asking so many questions: ‘Didn’t you read the contract? Why would you sign it?’” recalls Ginelle Gomez, the senior class president. “He couldn’t reply because they were so rowdy. But his explanation was he recalls signing the contract and then calling them back and asking if May 18th was available and they said yes.”

Luevano says it was Kimberly Smith-Woodbury, the Long Beach Hilton’s catering manager, who OKd the date change to May 18. Smith-Woodbury was also at the meeting held at the hotel about a month ago with Garfield administrators and students to discuss decorations and numbers of tables.

“We were talking to the lady and we kept saying May 18--and she said May 18th as well,” recalls Gomez, who was at that meeting.

Photographer Gary Roberts, a veteran of proms, was also at that meeting and says the date may not have been prominently discussed. “I think it was assumed that we knew the date,” says Roberts, who with his wife owns the Anthony Loya Studio. But Roberts said he did mention the May 18 date when he called the catering manager last week and left her a voice mail.

Smith-Woodbury did not return phone calls, but the Hilton’s Gagnon says of the meeting, “It could have been they were making reference to a date and it didn’t throw up a marker to anyone.”

Anger in the school quickly turned into a frantic scramble to reschedule hair appointments, tuxedo and limo rentals--and dates. Fliers announcing the change have been posted all over school, and Gomez made an automated phone call alerting all seniors. Garfield students are notorious for hanging up on the automated calls that come from school, so Gomez’s message begins “Please don’t hang up! This is an urgent message.... “

School administrators have phoned limo companies and tuxedo rental shops to alert them to the changes. “No one has refused to hold the rentals,” says Assistant Principal Richard Bin. Any students having trouble with rentals have been told to ask the school for help.

For Some, Actually an Advantage

Anger has subsided for some, who are grateful they found out before prom night. “I’m really glad Mr. Luevano called. Otherwise, we would have all showed up in our dresses,” says Beatris Hernandez, 17.

Some seniors are actually happy about the extra two weeks, so they can save more money or work off detention hours--which must be served before a student may attend the prom.

“I’m one of several who are relieved,” says Silvia Ramos, 18. “My dress isn’t even done yet.”

“I kind of procrastinated with the tuxedo, so this gives me more time,” says David Castillo, 18. Garfield High seniors graduate June 27 at East Los Angeles College.

“Unless they change it on us,” says Jeanette Avalos, 17.