The State - News from Feb. 11, 1985

Two Santa Rosa teen-agers will get $4,500 for the suffering caused by missing out on their high school prom. Julie Barnett, 15, and her boyfriend, Steve Lloyd, 18, were turned away from Piner High’s senior prom last June after school officials said that the girl, who was in the ninth grade at the time, was too young to attend. The mothers of both students had spent weeks sewing Julie’s dress, and the girl’s family put in more than 80 hours repainting the family’s red 1968 Corvette for the dance. The angry parents filed a $4,950 claim against the school, which settled for $4,500. “It isn’t the money so much that is the big thing,” Barnett said. “It’s the fact that Steve never got to go to his high school prom that still makes me sad.”