I don't want to go so far as to be defending prom, which is one of the dumbest things around, little kids pretending to be adults (under careful adult supervision of course) where Junior find out just how much a decent piece of ass is going to run him for the rest of his life and Little Betty finds out that if you drink too much the strangest things end up in your mouth. Fark that stuff.
School have no business doing this sort of 'feel good' social stuff anymore. If they want a prom, do what Kevin Bacon did in footloose and DIY.
But I sure as ->-bleeped-<- am totally over administrators who be cashing the check like they were in charge, but when it comes time to act can't pull it off. As the saying goes: Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
/// Spent my prom night @ Winterland dancing to the Grateful Dead with my GF and a bunch of other similar types. No tux, jeans, my leather coat, and my favorite concert T-shirt. We didn't have to worry about sneaking booze in because we had enough mushrooms to push us way past the third bardo (and enough smoke to bring us back down again). No parental units chaperoning the 'after party', we just all went walking on Ocean Beach after the show - laughing hysterically at the prom people as I remember. Total cost, about 25% of what the prom people paid. Hell, anyone could (and does) go to prom. I feel much better about seeing the Dead at Winterland.