The Vermillionaire

Winter Formal is Surrounded in Controversy

Friday, December 03, 2010 By Mikaela French

As most of us know, teenagers can be very opinionated. They always have to be upset about something, and right now most of the students are upset over one thing. This year the school enforced a no grinding rule at the school dances. Some people are so upset that they will not come to anymore dances if the rule goes unchanged. In a random survey of fifty students, over half of the students said that they were upset about the no grinding policy; most of these students also stated that they would leave the dance. They also said they would quit coming to dances in the future. With all of these students not attending, is the change even worth it? Sophomore Sarah Hansen says, “I love dances; I always have! But if I can’t dance the way I want to, I will leave. I think a lot of the students will.” Jason Huska, Dean of Students, explained the need for the change. “Progressively the number of students grinding has been going up a lot. At first it was just a few kids, but now that the whole dance floor is taking part in these dance moves, we can’t let it go on any longer,” Huska said. “Another reason that we decided to ban students from grinding is that the styles are getting much too graphic. Some people feel uncomfortable in these situations, and since the dance is held on school property, it is our job to make all students feel comfortable.” Huska offered another option instead of dances - game night. “This could be a very fun way to not have people feel uncomfortable but still have an option for students to gather together. This option would be similar to after-prom; we could set up games in different teacher’s rooms. The games would differ from video games to board games. If our students don’t start following the dancing rules, we will have to switch to the option of game night.” When presented with the option of game night the student body had mixed feelings about it. Half of the students thought this could be fun, while the other half wasn’t fond of the idea. Krissy Zalud said, “I love dances so much that game night could never live up. I love dressing up, going out to dinner, and dance. I don’t think it is an equal trade.”