Teens miss prom after venue changed to smaller one at last minute — and the school is blaming them
A group of Virginia high schoolers couldn’t attend their prom when a change in venue limited the number of tickets sold to the annual event.
Tickets for Midlothian High School’s prom were sold out within days of becoming available after school officials advertised a week-long sale to its students for the annual tradition, according to WTVR.
Students and parents at the Chesterfield County school were dumbfounded because they were never told the tickets would be limited.
Others were confused after they assumed the senior dues they paid in the fall included entry to the dance.
“All seniors and their dates should get a prom ticket,” one parent said, the outlet reported. “Absolute failure to these seniors.”
Another mother wrote that her son was left without a date after his longtime girlfriend wasn’t “allocated a ticket.”
“Many seniors are WITHOUT tickets for their OWN PROM,” the frustrated parent wrote. “There is so much chaos surrounding this subject that the school has just stopped responding about it. I’m so sad for them.”
The prom, opened to both juniors and seniors, was held May 4 at the Hippodrome Theater in Richmond, Va., approximately 16 miles northeast of the high school.
“My concern is why would they decide to book a venue that could not accommodate every student and their date that wanted to attend?” one parent asked.
The change to the Richmond venue came early in the school year when students requested a different locale than the traditional Chesterfield Career and Technical Center, a post-secondary prep institute within the public school district.
“The reason for our location change is that students wanted prom at a different venue and very few venues can accommodate much larger than 700 without 18 months’ notice,” principal Dr. Shawn Abel said, according to WTVR. “We selected the Hippodrome based on very positive feedback from Deep Run HS, who has hosted their prom there the past two years. Deep Run is the same size school as Midlo.”
School officials claim only 10 students and 15 guests couldn’t purchase tickets.
“I was looking forward to it and I thought since there is only two grades, everyone would get to go,” Midlothian junior Holden White told the outlet.
The administration also stressed it had notified families at the beginning of the year of the smaller capacity of the new venue compared to previous years, and couldn’t sell more tickets because of fire capacity.
Seniors had been offered an earlier sale in March while juniors were left with only the general sale last week.
“I feel sorry for families who worked hard to give kids a prom to remember and now can’t due to this,” one parent told the outlet.
A waitlist was created for any student who missed out on purchasing a ticket, but the school couldn’t promise admittance to the dance.
“I’m sorry they did not receive their prom ticket, but I wanted you to fully understand the circumstances,” Abel’s letter to the parents concluded.
