TOMORROWKNOWS

KILLJOY

L.I. Principal Nixes School's Senior Prom
By FRANK ELTMAN UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)

- Brother Kenneth M. Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school: Students putting down $10,000 to rent a party house in the Hamptons. Pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo. Fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night ``booze cruise.''

Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School canceled the spring prom in a 2,000-word letter to parents this fall.

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake - in a word, financial decadence,'' Hoagland said, fed up with what he called the ``bacchanalian aspects.'' ``Each year it gets worse - becomes more exaggerated, more expensive, more emotionally traumatic,'' he added. ``We are withdrawing from the battle and allowing the parents full responsibility. (Kellenberg) is willing to sponsor a prom, but not an orgy.''

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