I would like to extend my thanks to the person who had the chutzpah to rummage through my purse at the Winter Wonderland dance Dec. 13 and steal my hard-earned money. When I say my money was "hard-earned," I mean it. I have been working three days a week after school since the beginning of the year to earn it. My friends and I had optimistic post-dance plans - seeing the tree in Rockefeller Center and viewing the brightly decorated city storefronts. Instead, I strolled through the streets of New York with a frown on my face for the remainder of the evening.

I am extremely disheartened because the culprit is most likely one of my own peers. There is a strong possibility that a Garden City High School student can be at fault because our school has had occasions in the past on which belongings were stolen from the locker room. This incident could have been prevented if students attending the dance had a more secure place in which they could put their possessions.

Since students are not allowed to roam the school during the dance, and they were not granted access to their own lockers, the only feasible place to put belongings was inside the cubbies located in the cafeteria.

One suggestion that I have for next year's dance: each student should be given a ticket stub with a number upon arrival. This number would correspond to a specific cubby, and much like a "coat check-in," students would only be allowed to access his/her cubby by showing the ticket stub to a chaperone, someone who would be in charge of the cubbies. This may sound somewhat childish, but if this is the only alternative to preventing theft at Garden City High School - so be it!

A typical thief, in defense of his/her actions would probably say: "She's probably rich anyway and she won't even miss it." This is not the case. My family is not rich. In fact, my parents did not lay out a single penny to pay for the expenses related to the dance. The money came from my own pocket to buy a dress, a ticket and to pay for the cost of the limousine.

Over the years, I have heard my peers gossip in the hallways after dances about the great times that they had; and, year after year, I regretted not going. Once and for all, as a senior this year, I decided (capriciously!) to go, keeping the "no regrets" slogan in the back of my mind. In a nutshell, my first and last Winter Wonderland experience was truly a "wonder"ful one!

Christine Beihoff