Homecoming week in high school is a pretty big deal – especially that all-important dance that has so many teens pondering for weeks over who to go with and what to wear.
But there are hundreds of South Bay students who won’t have the chance to attend their homecoming dance -- and it’s not their fault.
Santa Teresa High School’s homecoming dance is Saturday night but a big segment of the school's population was shut out because the school doesn’t have enough chaperones to oversee the dance.
In years past, the school didn’t have a limit on the number of tickets they sold but this year was different. The school can only pay 12 teachers to chaperone so out of about 2,700 students, only 500 of them are allowed to attend.
"I was shocked and surprised that I couldn't even go to my own homecoming dance that I've been looking forward to all year," Taylor, 15, told the Mercury News. "I feel bad for the seniors who can't even go to their last homecoming dance."
The school gymnasium can accommodate a few hundred more students and parents have volunteered to chaperone. It seems like a perfect solution but the school doesn’t allow parents to chaperone dances.
Students say the school didn’t announce that there was a limit on tickets for the dance.
High schoolers who had their dresses, dates, shoes and hairdos all set for the night are stunned and outraged. Parents are upset, too. Nobody knows exactly how many students were excluded from the big night but it’s likely this won’t be the last we hear from the heartbroken teens.
