Homecoming dance stirs up opinions amongst students, teachers

The Homecoming dance (Sept. 24) this year was different for several reasons; it was run by the Class of 2017, everything was student-based in planning, and was a Sadie Hawkins-style dance where girls ask guys to the dance. With all of these differences in mind, it’s nearly guaranteed that people were going to have varying opinions on the matter. There were many who enjoyed their time at the dance, but there was a striking amount of talk about a parent volunteer who took their job as a gym supervisor very seriously.

All weekend over social media and by word of mouth, rumors had spread like crazy about people getting physically separated, excessively reprimanded, and even asked to leave the dance as a whole by this chaperone. The rumors were flying, but as anyone in today’s society knows, there’s only a certain degree of truth to rumors and what people are saying and what actually happened may not line up as it should.

The dance was chaperoned by some parents of students who volunteered and some teacher volunteers as well. In previous years, this has worked well. This year, some issues arose.

It is no secret that among the several dance moves represented at school dances, “grinding” is the most popular. There have been some issues in the past with students and guests taking things a bit too far with the dance move (and those are dealt with appropriately), but for the most part, the dancing is just in good fun according to students. However, this year, there was some confusion about what the expectations were.

Hollie Mazur, one of the two teachers overseeing Homecoming volunteers, said that the volunteers were instructed to make sure that everyone remained safe and to step in if things were getting out of hand.

Most of the chaperones followed these basic guidelines, but many students were approached by one chaperone in particular and had some unsettling encounters.

Several students across all grades, genders, and backgrounds reported being approached for “dancing inappropriately.” Students were reprimanded, threatened to be kicked out, and some were even physically separated.

Although this is not commonplace for dances and situations of this scale have not happened before, many students are already shying away from attending Winterfest.

“I think that individual took it upon [him/herself] to go in and break things up,” Stuart Eastman, a teacher volunteer who was stationed in the gym for homecoming said. “The chaperone had volunteered before so no one really thought anything of it, but it just got taken a bit too far this time around.”

“We want everyone to feel safe and have fun at our dances. We do not want anyone to shy away from attending any future activities. If you know of someone who did not feel safe at the dance, please encourage them to fill out an incident report so we can follow up with each student. Incident reports are available in every classroom and office in our building,” said principal Sandra Kreps.

All things considered, most students actually considered the dance to be quite a success.

“We sold over a thousand tickets,” said Sara Staten, the Class of 2017 advisor. All of the funds raised for homecoming went to the Class of 2017’s prom fund. With over a thousand tickets in sales and concession sales, representatives said homecoming was a major financial success.