Santa Monica high schools may share one senior prom
Seniors from both of Santa Monica's high schools may end up sharing their last dance together.
Without having a prom of their own, Olympic High School students have asked the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board to let them attend the Santa Monica High School's senior prom.
Olympic High School is a continuation school that educates students who have to stay home to care for sick parents or who have to work 40-hour weeks to help support their families. For some students, it can take longer than four years to graduate.
Classes at Olympic High School are so small that the school's senior class participates in SAMOHI's graduation ceremony.
And now the students want to be part of the school's last party of the year.
"Prom is a celebration of your senior year, and they would like that opportunity," said Olympic High School Principal Suzanne Toyryla. "The only reason I'm absolutely for us attending the Santa Monica prom is because we are not big enough to have our own."
Olympic High School has 128 students, and 26 of them have graduated since July. The high school may break its record this year by graduating 50 students, Toyryla said.
Olympic seniors are allowed to attend SAMOHI's senior prom, but only as someone's date.
Some school administrators said Olympic students could attend SAMOHI's prom, as long as they meet the same attendance and discipline guidelines set forth by the high school.
"All things should be equal," said Superintendent John Deasy. "Any student meeting academic and disciplinary standards should be able to go to the prom."
The superintendent said he already had contacted principals at both high schools to combine the senior classes for the dance.
Toyryla agrees that her students should be held to the same standards as SAMOHI seniors.
"If they are allowed to go, it should be under the same requirements that Santa Monica High School students have," she said. "If you're going to the same prom then you have to abide by the same rules and guidelines."
Oscar de la Torre, director of the Pico Youth and Family Center, works with many Olympic students on a daily basis. He said the students feel like they are missing an important part of high school by not having a prom.
"This issue brings about the question of whether there is a double standard that exists in the school district between students that attend Olympic and students that attend SAMOHI," he said. "I think Santa Monica High School feels the need to control who attends the prom, and they may not like this idea very much."
SAMOHI co-principals Kristin Hibert and Mark Kelly did not return repeated phone calls.
Some critics believe that bringing the two schools together could create safety problems because they think rivalries at the schools run high and students may get into fights.
But Toyryla said her staff, who knows which students are good and which ones are not, would attend the prom and try to keep tensions low.
"We know who the bad apples are, and we also know who the real sweethearts are too," she said. "Sure, we have our bad kids, but they do too."
Toyryla also said bringing the seniors together at the prom would help dispel any myths about continuing education students.
"There are a lot of successful people in this state and in this community who were continuation students," she said. "If more people would step up and say 'I'm a continuation graduate,' then we could get past all this."
One SAMOHI student doesn't see a problem with inviting Olympic students to the senior prom.
"I don't see why it would be such a big deal," said Camille Thorsen. "Most of those kids are from Santa Monica or even went to SAMOHI at some point."
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2002. Read the original PDF.