It’s December 11, 2004, Saturday evening. Most students are getting their hair done, showering, and getting dressed, anxious for the formal to start. You get all nice and ready to go out expecting it to be a great night out. You and your date get together maybe go out to dinner with friends, take pictures with family, or go straight to the dance. When you arrive everything looks awesome, the music is loud and you’re ready to party. You walk around to find someone to dance with or meet up with a friend.

Then once you have been dancing and are just starting to really get into it, its cut short by an administrator telling your dancing partner that they need to come with them. Confused, you start to ask questions like, "what’s going on?" and "what happened?” But the person being escorted out of the dance is either to scared to answer or refuses to. Chances are if an administrator needed your date, your friend, your dancing partner or even you, it was because you came to the dance intoxicated.

There were many students who fell under this category, though only 7 were actually caught and removed from the dance. Their punishment was an automatic five-day suspension and a nasty call home from Ms. Smith.

After those students were escorted out of the dance the rumors started to fly that it was a student who had tipped off the administration of the not-so-sober students.

"No it wasn't a student, I just have a good nose and could smell it on individual students as soon as they walked in," commented Ms. Smith. She says she is not pleased at all with what happened on the night of the formal. "I do not like calling parents on their nights off to tell them their kids have been drinking."

Everyone knows that that is not a call your parents to receive. "If you come to a school sponsored activity and you’re under the influence, you deserve to be removed from that activity, and suspended," says Mr. Jones, who was a chaperone Saturday night. So after your night has been pretty much ruined from the drama, the decision to be made is to either go out or just go home, upset at the students who could potentially ruin it for the rest of us who choose not to drink. “It’s just not fair to those who didn’t drink, and especially to seniors because this is our last year and we don’t want to lose our dances,” says Sheridan Gnile, who attended the ball.

“They should suspend dances for the rest of the year including prom," said Mr. Jones So for those responsible students who came to the dance sober, thank you. For those of you who drank, don't do it again, or at least don't come to school and try to ruin it for the rest of us.