They didn't get to wear a pink tux to the prom ...

... because it was cancelled!

Brother Kenneth M. Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school:

Students putting down $10,000 to rent a party house in the Hamptons.

Pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo.

Fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise."

Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School canceled the spring prom in a 2,000-word letter to parents this fall.

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said, fed up with what he called the "bacchanalian aspects."

"Each year it gets worse -- becomes more exaggerated, more expensive, more emotionally traumatic," he said.

"We are withdrawing from the battle and allowing the parents full responsibility. [Kellenberg] is willing to sponsor a prom, but not an orgy."

True that!

Here are the letters that he sent home: March & September.

I would have to agree with his logic. I'm not saying that proms are bad, I had a good time at our school dances, but, contrary to what many believe, they are not the most important night of high school life. In many cases, they are just school-sponsored hedonistic binge-drinking parties. What is the point of that? Why pay hundreds of dollars for a dress/tux, limo, and all the after party entertainment you can drink when you could just get drunk for far less any other weekend.

For my senior prom, my friends and I all took the band bus instead of a limo. Yes, we were band geeks, but it was a darn good time. A prom in itself is a cool thing, but when it gets blown up into this all-important social event, it's lost its real purpose: hanging out with your friends.