A Night to Remember, if Only for the Bills

I imagine young Brian Njau is having second thoughts now about his supposed plan to hold up a teacher for her SUV so he could drive to the prom last weekend. The Pennsylvania youth has had plenty of time to think about it since, sitting behind bars at Berks County Prison after being booked on charges of robbery and aggravated assault.

Njau had planned to ride to the prom with friends, but they backed out when they couldn’t get dates, he told a wire service reporter. He hoped to use his mother’s car, but she couldn’t take the night off from work. So he wound up without wheels and the prom just hours away, and his date warning him on the phone not to be late.

As a mother in the midst of prom preparations, I understand it must have seemed to Njau like a crisis calling for desperate measures. But the plan police say he settled on involved a series of bad moves: He spotted Stacey Stoudt getting into her 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara at a nearby elementary school, allegedly pulled an unloaded BB gun from his sleeve and ordered the teacher to hand him the keys.

Police found the vehicle the next morning, in the parking lot of a hotel where Njau and his date had gathered with friends post-prom. Inside the car, police say, were his rented tux vest, his date’s dress shoes and a camera with film of Njau at the prom.

Njau is an honors student who before this had never been in serious trouble. But then, prom fever can infect even the most mature of teenagers. And when desperation triumphs over good sense, not even prom night can promise a Cinderella ending.

It’s supposed to be the most perfect night of a high schooler’s life, filled with magic, promise and romance. But our kids’ rising expectations and the pressure on them to keep up with one another are conspiring to make the prom just one more source of stress.

The buzz these days when prom rolls around is not so much about dance themes and dates, but dresses and limos and after-parties ... and the toll on a bankroll that the big night takes.

“In our day, you didn’t go to the prom if you didn’t have a date,” recalls Venice High teacher Nancy Zubiri. “Today, that’s not so much of an issue; kids go in groups or with friends. Today, cost is more of a factor. Prom’s still the event of the year. But a lot of kids don’t go because they can’t afford it.”

And they can’t afford it because it’s not enough anymore to rent a tux or buy a dress and borrow the old man’s car for the night. The prom can easily set a student back $400 or $500, what with tickets at about $140 a couple and a rented tux or formal dress costing upward of $100. Add in flowers, shoes, professional hairstyle and makeup, a luxury rental car or limousine, and that one night costs as much as my honeymoon did 25 years ago.

“We have kids who start planning a year ahead, who get jobs and start saving their money so they have enough to get the dress, the shoes, the limo,” said Minnie Mahone, activities director at Hamilton High in Los Angeles. Zubiri said her students “practically died” when she told them that at her prom “the kids who had a car to drive were lucky.... A lot of times our parents had to drive us.” And when she asked how many would be going to the prom in limos, every hand in the class shot up.

“I was really surprised by that,” she said. “I thought limos were an extravagant thing that only a few kids did. This is not a wealthy school ... but every kid finds a way to ride in a limo.”

Even when schools try to provide alternatives, many students still opt for chauffeur-driven glamour.

San Marino High tried to charter a bus last year to ferry kids across town to their prom at the Long Beach Aquarium but got no takers.

In West Hills, Chaminade Catholic school has solved the problem by requiring students to ride school-sponsored buses to the prom from their San Fernando Valley campus.

“There was some griping and complaining four years ago when we first started,” said Debbie Berko, the school’s activities director. “Some kids threatened not to go if they had to ride a bus to the prom.”

Now, students may have gotten used to the practice, but they haven’t lost their obsession for limos. “We’ve got two other dances at school during the year, and the kids always show up in limousines,” said Berko. “They get a limo for the 10-minute ride to campus.”

I guess the thirst for luxury is a powerful motivator. But sometimes good sense has to trump the urge to live large. Prom’s only one night, after all. Better to match your mode to your means.

The magic fades quickly when you’re in debt--or behind bars.

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Sandy Banks’ column is published Sundays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is sandy.banks@latimes.com.