Taking Over Dances

Today we were told to go to homeroom and were given expectations for our Homecoming Dance coming up.  The paper reads as follows:

“Behavior Expectations for

Dances at Kennedy High School

The Following expectations have been developed by members of Kennedy’s Student Government and endorsed by the Kennedy staff and administration:

1.      It is expected that all students will wear clothing for a school event

2.      It is expected that clothing will be worn as intended at all times.  Boys are expected to keep their shirts on.  Girls are expected to keep their dresses and skirts at the intended length.  Pulling skirts/dresses up is unacceptable.

3.      It is expected that all students will dance appropriately.  Simulating sex acts, dancing with hands on the ground, etc. are inappropriate.

School staff and administration will enforce the expectations.  Students who do not follow the expectations will be asked to leave the dance.”

            Now I don’t know about anyone else, but the expectations are just sad.  However, I feel as though they are the same rules that have been in affect the last few years, but were just only written down now.

            I think we have all always known these rules, but at the same time everything will still be the same.  I didn’t attend homecoming last year, but I did go to WPA and I saw many of these things be done, and the rules were not enforced properly.  I feel as though either the same thing will be done this year, or they will be over-enforced and similar to another local school, kids will instead start having outside parties.

            I know our school does not want to necessarily set strict rules that prevent kids from coming to the dance.  By doing that, it opens up kids to have their own parties that may include illegal activities that could have been prevented, such as drinking.  I know our school also spends a lot of money on homecoming and does not want to lose a lot of ticket sales.

            There are a few things, however, that these rules leave open for your own interpretation.  The first rule could either mean that we should not show up naked, which in that case I could come in a bikini if I really wanted to; or they could mean to wear appropriate clothing which in that case I might want to wear a dress.

            There are a lot of things that could be interpreted in the second rule.  First, boys have to keep their shirts on; however, it doesn’t say anything about pants.  Now this may or may not be a shocker to you, but I have heard of guys whipping it out on the dance floor.  The second thing wrong is that the intended length for many skirts on homecoming dresses nowadays, means there is no need to pull up the dress in the first place.  I also know a guy that wears a kilt occasionally, and according to these rules he would be allowed to pull that up as much as he wants.

            Now I come to the third rule.  One concern of this rule could mean that there would be no more grinding allowed.  In response to a school that made a rule stating just that there was a dance last year called “Grind Fest” outside of the school event which like I said earlier, could lead to illegal activities.  I feel as though this rule should almost just go right out there and instead of saying simulating sex acts, just say having sex.  Everyone at my school knows it happens, even the teachers.  The whole hands on the ground thing has always been a rule, only enforced by a few teachers in the past.

            The biggest thing with all these rules, the real culprits won’t be caught.  The girls with their skirts up dance in the middle of the large mob or people, and the kids having sex are also in the middle.  I really think the rules are not going to change anything except give us all something to talk about going up until the dance.

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