Stockton Record - October 19, 2007 - Tara Cuslidge
West High Teens Will Dance After All
Students at Merrill F. West High School will be dancing after all this weekend, thanks to a group of parents and a former student.
"The Homecoming Dance" will be held Saturday at the Holiday Inn Express.
The private dance was organized in response to the school's Oct. 3 cancellation of today's homecoming dance.
"In a week, it came together," said Laura Serrone, mother of a West High freshman and one of the parents helping to organize the event.
The dance is open only to West students. Capacity limits attendance to 150.
The private dance will enforce many of the school's new dance guidelines. The parents don't have access to those records. The dance is not sponsored or affiliated with the school or Tracy Unified School District.
Serrone said parents aren't trying to cause a riff with administrators. The goal is to do something positive for the teenagers who don't deserve to be punished because of the actions of a small group of students, she said.
"We're moms, we love our kids, and we want them to have a good high school experience," she said.
Former West High student Jeremiah North, a deejay who owns Ripon's Kid Red Entertainment, is helping parents put on the event.
The school-sponsored homecoming dance was canceled earlier this month so students could familiarize themselves with new dance guidelines established after more than 40 students were ejected from the September back-to-school dance for sexually suggestive freak dancing.
No other dances were canceled, and West High Principal Herman Calad said the homecoming dance would be replaced with another activity later in the year.
Calad, who found out about the private dance Wednesday, said he doesn't feel the administration has been underminded. "I don't have any concerns. It's not a school activity," he said. "I don't have anything to say about it."
Contrary to rumors, Serrone said the students will not be given discounts on rooms or be allowed to check in the hotel.
"I would never send my teenager daughter to somewhere I though was inappropriate or unsafe," she said.
At least 10 security guards and 15 parents chaperones will watch over the students. A semi-formal dress code will be , and freaking dancing will not be allowed.
Yolanda Aguilar, whose daughters Salina, 16, and Christina, 14, attend the school, said she'd rather the students have a dance on school grounds where all the new rules- including one pertaining to Saturday school hours-could be enforced. "I wouldn't compromise," she said.
Deborah Pugsley, a 17-year-old senior, said there are good intentions behind the dance but says she can't see herself going, especially since it costs $15 a person.
"It's cool that they are trying to make a difference," she said.
Serrone said the hosts aren't profiting from the admission. The money will be used to pay for the event.
