The dance was to be hosted unofficially as a fundraiser by environmental clubs at Palo Alto High School on the night of May 21 at the Palo Alto Art Center, but it was canceled due to increased concern about the safety of such private events.
After interviews with police, Art Center officials and administrators, it is clear that concerns about teen drinking and public safety discussed at a Palo Alto Drug and Alcohol Community Collaborative meeting prompted community and law enforcement efforts to prevent the dance from occurring.
Recently, a series of private student-run dances have drawn hundreds of attendees while the Associated Student Body has struggled to keep school dances competitive. This disparity in attendance is widely believed to be an effect of the administration’s two-year-old policy of breathalyzing students before they enter school dances and has engendered growing concern among parents, administrators and police throughout the year.
Last Wednesday, senior Philip Chen, who co-coordinated the dance and is a member of the Paly Green Team, received an e-mail about the cancellation of his group’s “Where the Wild Things Are” dance from Lam Do, an administrator in the City of Palo Alto Community Service Department. Do informed Chen that concerns regarding the capacity of the facility and the safety of the student participants had prompted the last-minute cancellation. Do also wrote that the Art Center was concerned about the overselling of tickets and the extent to which the dance had become an “open invitation,” and collaborated with the police department in deciding to cancel the event.
“We knew that underage drinking was a possibility and despite Philip’s best intentions, we were unsure about his ability to control the situation,” Do told The Paly Voice.
Do’s response came after issues surrounding the dance’s publicity and alleged lax security were raised at a recent PADACC meeting.
“The topic of underage drinking at dances and parties in Palo Alto has been an ongoing discussion over the years and has been on PADACC’s agenda recently,” said Karin Bloom, Project Director for PADACC.
“It was brought up at the meeting and so I looked up the link on Facebook,” said Lieutenant Scott Wong, a police representative to PADACC.
Wong said he read statements on the Facebook event that led him to question the safety of students attending the dance.
“I was concerned about what the group labeled as ‘chill security guards,'” Wong said. “Furthermore, I saw that they [the dance coordinators] intended to sell tickets for the dance across the street from the Art Center.” The availability of tickets at the door augmented concerns over capacity and the ability of the Paly Green Team and Environmental Initiative to control the situation.
Wong then spoke with Art Center administrators, who conveyed information to him that raised the possibility of underage drinking at the dance.
“Apparently, one of the [Green Team] dance organizers had expressed concern that there would be breathalyzers at the event,” Wong said.
He also echoed apprehension regarding venue capacity and the extent to which the event had become “an open invitation.” While the capacity of the Art Center is 220 people in accordance with fire safety laws, there were at least 300 students who declared an intent to attend the dance.
“[There were] over 300 confirmed guests [on the Facebook event page], and at least 500 more that may attend,” Wong said. “Furthermore, a bunch of kids [were] from college.”
“[It was because of concern for the] safety of kids and the community that we couldn’t allow the event to occur,” Wong said.
The Green Team expressed frustration that its members had not been notified of the dance’s cancellation earlier
“In terms of the city, I wish they had given us more than two days’ notice,” Chen said.
Dance coordinators, while acknowledging the possibility that teen drinking could have occurred at last Friday’s dance, felt that the city acted unfairly in canceling the dance in order to pre-empt underage drinking.
“As with many teen social events, some teens will choose to drink,” said a student involved with the organization of the dance who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But I don’t think that the ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ dance that would have happened May 21 would necessarily have been a more dangerous venue for this to occur than at any other private teen social event. I think it was wrong for them [the Art Center in consultation with the Police Department] to cancel the dance on suspicion that there would be drinking.”
Before the dance was canceled, some parents had called the administration and expressed concern over the fact that the Green Team dance conflicted with the school-sponsored “Last Chance Dance,” according to Assistant Principal Kimberly Diorio.
Since the administration has required that students be breathalyzed before entering school-sponsored dances, students have organized more private dances throughout the community, Diorio said.
Lieutenant Wong expressed confusion over Paly students’ reluctance to attend school-sponsored dances.
“At Gunn, they also use breathalyzers and hundreds of kids turn up to school dances there,” Wong said. “I’m not sure what the disconnect is at Paly.”
Wong expressed hope that incoming principal Phil Winston will help to ameliorate the conflict between school-sponsored dances, which he called potentially dangerous.
“I hope things will improve with Winston coming in,” Wong said.