Commack's after-prom party's a bust

BY ANDREW SCHARFF | Special to Newsday

9:22 PM EDT, May 12, 2008

For most high school students, a prom is an experience they always will remember. For 120 teens from Commack High School, their junior prom was a night they want to forget.

After the students dined and danced Saturday night at Commack High School, they jumped into three party buses and a limousine and headed into Manhattan to Club SKYY, a popular post-prom spot.

Despite having paid $6,000 to party organizer PromTime.com to reserve the club, the students were not allowed to enter.

The problem, according to PromTime.com owner Eddie Miller, was that Club SKYY owner Earle Roberts had double-booked the club.

When the students arrived around 11:15 p.m., tickets in hand, the club already was crowded. The students said they were left standing outside on Leonard Street in downtown Manhattan.

"I got phone calls from my friends in the other groups and they told me they were getting sent somewhere else," said Samantha Mule, 17, who booked Club SKYY and was on the last bus to arrive. "I just started crying because I was so confused and didn't know what was going on."

Miller said he learned of the double-booking only after arriving at Club SKYY with a DJ and chaperones around 8 p.m.

Phone calls yesterday to Roberts, his law office in Brooklyn, and Club SKYY requesting comment were not returned.

Miller yesterday refunded the $6,000 and offered each student a free ticket to the company's annual Memorial Day teen event. He also offered a free ticket to any of the 120 juniors attending an after-prom event at the Villa NYC following Commack's senior prom next month. The students still are out the $1,800 it cost for the buses and limo.

"I imagine that this would cast a shadow over us," Miller said. "But we will prove to people that we are an legitimate company and we only book safe venues."

After the students were denied entry at Club SKYY, Miller brought them to a different venue -- the Vesta Lounge in Midtown. "A lot of people were scared. We didn't know anything about this club, so when we got there the atmosphere [among the students] was very negative," said Chris Balestras, 17.

Most of the kids decided to leave and head home on the Long Island Rail Road, students and parents said.

Balestras' mother Patricia, 39, said she wants students from other schools to be aware that these kinds of things can happen. "I think parents definitely still need to step in and be involved," she said. "Kids can still have a great time and they can have a blast, but just have a parent overlook it."

Commack High School principal Russell J. Stewart said he was unaware of what happened after the prom. While he wants to help his students as much as possible, he said, there is nothing the district can do for the students since the problem occurred off campus.