Live Oak seniors will no longer travel to Monterey for
celebration due to last year’s unfortunate events
Morgan Hill – The last dance for seniors at Live Oak High School – the Senior Ball – will also be the last time the school takes its celebration to the Club Del Monte at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.
Live Oak Principal Nick Boden said Thursday that the May 20 event would be held at the club despite the unfortunate events after the ball was over last year, but next year’s event would not be held at the club.
Following the 2005 Senior Ball in Monterey, many students gathered at the Best Western Monterey Beach Resort. There were students from as many as five high schools, including Live Oak, renting rooms. Some students were drinking, while others were just enjoying being with friends.
Police were called to the hotel after a 17-year-old girl was seriously injured when she fell from a third-floor balcony of the hotel. She landed on a sidewalk near a pool.
The unofficial party continued after the student fell from the balcony, bringing back Monterey Police to the hotel to arrest two San Martin residents on felony vandalism charges. A Live Oak graduate was arrested for public intoxication.
Although the distance and late-night driving are often reasons parents rent hotel rooms for their teens, Live Oak Associated Student Body Director Norm Dow said that the school does not sanction nor encourage students staying the night.
The school has made talking with students to discourage parties involving alcohol and drugs.
“We have done a presentation with our seniors on safe and sober,” Boden said Thursday. “We’ll have our usual information and guidelines packets that go home with the students when they purchase tickets. Plus, we’ll be sending some additional information home this year.”
Boden said the information they provide to students reinforces the safe and sober presentation, encouraging students to have fun at the event without using alcohol or drugs.
The Senior Ball itself will have between 25 and 30 chaperones, including school staff and parents, Boden said. He said he expects between 450 and 500 students will attend this year.
Live Oak High has been holding its annual prom at Club Del Monte for the past five years, said Michael Martin, public affairs officer for the Naval Postgraduate School. The navy facility rents out the hall for dances and other events. The graduate school is under relatively tight military security, so students attending the prom generally are bused to the facility and are accompanied by chaperones, Murphy said.
Boden said next year, the Senior Ball would be held in a different location, but the location has not been decided upon. Dow is researching the school’s options, Boden said.
The distance to Monterey is part of the reason the school is looking at moving its prom, but cost is also a factor, he added.
“We’ll be smaller next year, and we’ll have to find a place with a cost that our student population can support,” said Boden.
When asked about holding the event at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, Boden said he did not believe the site was under consideration.
“It doesn’t seem to have quite the size we need to accommodate the size crowd we would expect,” he said.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
