Formal on a yacht ruined by attendees disrespect for the boat’s property

Grace Dietz

Executive Arts Editor

This year, Winter Formal at Mira Costa was hosted by the Associated Student Body on two yachts on Feb. 9th. Although the idea of formal on a yacht seemed fun and exciting, in reality it was a waste of good money, time and effort for Costa attendees and ASB.

Tickets for formal went on sale towards the end of January. However, after the first week tickets sold out and ASB advisor Lisa Claypoole made the decision to rent another boat for the night. Once the tickets sold out for the second boat, ASB added the step to allow students to choose what boat to be on. Ticket sales for boat A, “The Entertainer,” ran out on Feb. 6, and the leftover attendees had to be on boat B, “Just Dreamin,” unless they chose to go on boat B for their own reasons.

One major flaw with ASB’s plan to have two boats for Winter Formal 2019 is that many attendees did not have the chance to be on the same boat as their friends and peers. The addition of another boat attempted to alleviate the matter, but overall it just caused further chaos. During the entire process of formal on a yacht, from the initial tickets sales even to the night of formal itself, there was a constant lack of leadership from our ASB. If ASB hosted Winter Formal as they did last year in a private lobby at a hotel, all attendees would have been in the same area with little complications. Instead, formal turned into a chaotic, unorganized mess where students had to fight their way into a high school dance that was not even worth the money or time in the first place.

The costs for tickets to attend formal this year were unreasonable and caused many students to not want to attend the event. Overall, the question arises: why would Costa students waste their money on an event that can’t accept everyone. According to ASB, the costs for tickets paid for renting out the boats for the night, food, music and general preparations. Additionally, ASB mentioned that students needed to park their cars in the lot at Marina Del Rey, but they never mentioned how expensive the parking actually was. The cost for parking, which was $11, combined with the costs of tickets, which were approximately $45 per student, makes the total cost for Winter Formal this year come out to approximately $60, which seems to be a total waste of a night considering the fiasco that ensued on boat A.

Even before the situation on “The Entertainer,” students were not having as much fun as they hoped. This was primarily caused by the actual setup of the boat. ASB chose to put the DJ and music on the second level of boat A. This initially seemed to be a good idea, as the dancing was indoors and the room was warm and comfortable enough to where the students weren’t cold. However, the ceilings were only 7 feet high, and put a damper on how much dancing attendees could do. The lack of significant planning on ASB’s part, combined with the chaotic dancing from students caused the fiasco that became the dance floor.

In response to the destructive dancing by attendees and the breaking of ceiling tiles, Claypoole stopped the music and warned students that if the act of breaking tiles didn’t stop, she would make the crew turn the ship around and head back to the docks. Principal Ben Dale even threatened the current status of prom. However, 30 minutes later the students returned to their energetic dancing and continued to break more tiles. The boat turned around and students were forced to leave the boat 30 minutes before it was intended to arrive at the docks. However, Dale never yelled at students after he warned them, he just let them walk off the yacht with his head hung low with disappointment and disapproval. Never once, not even in his email sent out to parents, did he actually reprimand students for their disrespectful actions, yet he actually praised students for showing cooperation with the entire situation.

The idea for formal on a yacht was not entirely thought out well on ASB’s part, but the fiasco that ensued at formal was primarily, if not entirely, caused by the attendees’ lack of cooperation and strict violation of the yacht’s rules and regulations. Although the student who broke the last tile was a student from another high school, Costa students on boat A are not entirely innocent of the situation that unfolded that night. They should have stopped breaking the tiles from the moment that the first tile was broken and they were warned once. Instead, Costa students needed to be warned and yelled at by the DJ, Claypoole and Dale, and some didn’t even show remorse for the chaos that they caused.

Take into account the utter embarrassment that Claypoole and Dale felt that night, as it can’t be easy to watch the students that they represent act rude towards authority. The unfortunate situation brings to light the attitudes and questionable morals of Costa students, while also pointing out their intolerable and disrespectful nature towards the crew of “The Entertainer” and to adults in authoritative positions, such as Claypoole and Dale. The attendees that were responsible for breaking the ceiling tiles should take accountability for their actions and pay Claypoole the money that is needed in order to repair all 16 tiles. Congratulations to the students who were responsible for breaking the boat’s property, you successfully ruined a night that would have been otherwise amazing.

Overall, the chance to be on a yacht for a private event is the opportunity of a lifetime. In this case, the issues with the yachts completely outweigh the benefit of the situation, but ultimately formal on a yacht was a good idea that turned into an utter mess due to the attendees lack of respect on “The Entertainer.” The yachts could have been bigger to allow for more space and the DJ could have been hosted on the top deck of boat A to avoid the unfortunate situation that did occur, but ASB could not have known that attendees would wreck the boat and break tiles just for the fun of it.