TEENS GET CHANCE TO GO TO DANCE; LANCASTER HIGH STUDENTS WON'T BE TURNED AWAY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Two days ago, Lancaster High School juniors and seniors were bummed.

They weren't going to the last big social event of the year, the junior-senior prom, because the event was sold out.

With a 500-person limit at the Santa Barbara hotel where the May 1 formal is being held, tickets were gone by Monday at lunchtime, leaving a waiting list of 79 students, school officials said.

But on Friday, school officials announced the good news that the 500-person cap at the Fess Parker Doubletree is being lifted by Santa Barbara city officials.

``We've been in discussion with them for several days, and the end result is they are going to allow us to bring up to 1,000 students,'' Principal Bill Appleton said. ``As long as we bring the students on buses, they will allow us the additional students.''

Before the announcement at the school Friday, the issue of the prom had become an emotional one. The formal would be the first senior prom at the school, which has its first senior class this year.

More than 40 students and parents showed up at the Antelope Valley Union High School District board meeting Wednesday, and about a dozen addressed the board about the prom. Board members said state law prevented them from taking any action, because the issue was not on the agenda.

``You have to sympathize with the seniors. It's their last year, and they won't have another shot at a prom,'' Trustee Bill Olenick said.

``We also had parents and students who eloquently stated their case. One student had to earn her money to pay for the prom. They were led by (school) administration to believe that there were plenty of tickets available after spring break. They came back to find they were gone,'' Olenick said.

One boy's mother told school officials she was going to lie in front of the bus transporting students to the prom so it couldn't go. Another mother at the board meeting said it had been her daughter's dream since the third grade to go to the prom.

The event was booked in June 1998 at the Fess Parker Red Lion Inn in Santa Barbara, Lancaster Assistant Principal Gil Lara said Thursday. At the time, school officials were told there was no limit.

When the hotel changed management in January to the Doubletree chain, the school was told there would only be 500 students allowed in the ballroom under a 1994 city ordinance, Lara said.

``It's a 1994 ordinance, which is what perplexes us,'' Lara said.

Superintendent Robert Girolamo said Highland High School held a prom at the same hotel last year with more than 700 attending.

After being told of the limit, school officials unsuccessfully tried to find another hotel in the Greater Los Angeles area, Lara said. The Antelope Valley Fair said it could accommodate the prom at its fairgrounds, but students turned down that option, Lara said.

Lara said announcements about the limited number of tickets were made 18 times in the school bulletin since January. Students were told the tickets would be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Appleton said Friday the intent of the Santa Barbara ordinance was to prevent the gathering of a large number of privately owned automobiles.

``One problem we may have at this point is contracting charter buses. We may have to use yellow school buses,'' Appleton said.