Formal Grievance: Elite Kids Want Prom
The 85 students transferred to Orange Coast Middle College High so they could escape their neighborhood schools -- and the cliques and crowded classes that came with them.
But even for those who pride themselves on being above most typical high school trappings, there is one teen experience they don’t want to miss: the prom.
In the six years since the Costa Mesa school opened, it has never held a dance. Its students, all juniors and seniors in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District who are finishing high school while earning college credits, want the chance to create their own traditions rather than attend dances at the schools they used to attend.
Not having a prom, the kids say, keeps their school from truly feeling like one.
But raising the $1,000 deposit that the Queen Mary requires by Friday for a May dance is difficult for a small student body and an even smaller parent-teacher-student association. At many other schools, deposits for dances are covered by associated student body dues.
More than $500 has been donated for the prom so far and students are confident they’ll raise the rest this week. But the prom committee wants to raise more to cover next year’s deposit and to offset the ticket price so more students will attend.
Committee members fear that if too many students at the small school believe that tickets are too expensive, they might have only a dozen couples spinning around the dance floor.
For Crystal Nay, the senior leading the charge, visions of carwashes and candy sales have, for the moment, replaced those of a star-themed ball aboard the retired ocean liner moored in Long Beach, and a green gown that she hopes will highlight her waist-length red hair.
“I’m on a quest,” she said. “I mean, it’s prom. When you’re in high school, you can’t miss out on that.”
To pump up her classmates before a month of intense fund-raising, Crystal and fellow committee member Josh Estrada, a junior, distributed goody bags containing six red foil-wrapped chocolate hearts with cards that read: “Happy Valentine’s Day! See you at prom!” Josh also laid a red carnation on each student’s desk at the four-classroom school Thursday morning.
Inhaling deeply from her flower, senior Amanda Smith gushed about what she would wear to the prom: something “really classy,” or a black corset with a red-and-black skirt.
Fellow senior Cheryl Hack said the prom is one of the staples of high school. “You see in the movies how everyone goes together and has the time of their lives,” she said. “It’s a big moment that every high school student should have.”
Of the roughly two dozen middle college high schools in California, Orange Coast is one of a handful without its own prom. Those that do finance them through fund-raisers.
Santa Ana Middle College High, which also opened six years ago, will be holding its third. Los Angeles Unified’s has had a prom for about a decade, site coordinator Crystel Coleman said. “Just because they don’t like most of what big high schools have to offer doesn’t mean they don’t have the same desire for a prom as any other teenager. It’s a milestone in a high school student’s life.”
Orange Coast Principal Bob Nanney is encouraging the students -- and has his own reason for awaiting the dance so eagerly: “Since my wife never went to prom when she was in high school, this would be her first one too. Our daughters are going to help her pick out a nice dress.”
A prom would make his students feel connected to their school, he said. Attending functions at their former schools, where they have little or no attachment, wouldn’t be the same.
“I think it’s neat they want to take the responsibility to leave a legacy here,” Nanney said. “When you start something new, that’s the hard part.”
Crystal said she’ll be happy when fund-raising is complete in March and she can focus on other parts of prom night -- like how she’ll style her hair. “I can’t even think about myself or what my perfect hairstyle would be until I get this thing settled,” she said. “Right now, ‘ideal’ means just for it to work out.”