[LocalYokel]

...from www.kvbc.com

Rancho Seniors Broke, Blame Businessman

Updated: June 14, 2007 06:02 PM EDT

Planning for the prom is supposed to be fun. But last year at Rancho High School, it turned into a nightmare. As Kids First Kendall Tenney explains, the kids who planned last year's prom are now seniors, and say thanks to a local businessman, they're broke.

That means no money for a senior class gift, or cash to celebrate graduation. The students are out thousands of dollars, and even the court says they should get that money back.

"I loved the venue," said Senior Morgan Scharf. "It was beautiful."

Last year, Rancho High School wanted to hold the prom at a business on Paradise near Tropicana that was called "The Front Door."

The students toured the facility, and paid its owner at the time, Eric Zimmerman, $5,000 up front. But, Zimmerman found that he didn't have the proper license from the county to hold a teen event. So the was venue gone. And as it turns out so was the kids' money.

Kendall: They said we'll give you your money back?

Morgan: Yes, they told us they'd give us our money back.

"We'd often time go to the place itself, and every time we went they'd have an excuse of why they didn't have it or they just wouldn't open the doors for us, they'd act like we weren't there," added Student Body President Geno Esparza.

After the students started having trouble, Principal Bob Chesto got involved. He knew that $5,000 had taken the kids three full years to fund raise. "They tried to do the right thing, they bargained in good faith and in good faith the money should be returned to them," said Chesto.

So the Clark County School District took the matter to court. Eric Zimmerman was a no-show, and so the court awarded the kids their money back -- all $5,000, plus expenses. But it's now seven months after the judgement, and the students still haven't seen a dime.

Kendall: What do you want to happen?

Geno: We need our money back because there's a lot of things our senior class wants to do.

Meanwhile, "The Front Door" has closed, as have Zimmerman's business offices. And as we found, Zimmerman no longer lives in the upscale Summerlin home where he was served with the students' suit. But we did track down a phone number. And after several messages, we eventually got a faxed response which says after learning a special license was needed, Zimmerman "offered to host the prom in our other facility." When Rancho students said no thanks, "we informed them the deposit was non-refundable." The fax goes on to say, "it's unfortunate that the students of Rancho High School are the result of how Clark County Business Licensing operates."

"What have they learned? What have we have adults taught them? What has this businessman taught students who are about the enter college," questioned Chesto.

Kendall: Do you think in the end this guy just scammed you?

Morgan: Oh, of course. I don't know what he was thinking. I don't know why he would scam high school students.

"It's horrible," agreed Geno. "Why would they do that to especially a young adult? Why would they do that? I don't know."

In the contract, it says refunds will not be given unless there's a natural disaster, damages to the premise, or government action -- you could argue the latter is what happened. The students say they don't want help from the community. They just want their money back from Eric Zimmerman.