Boycotts, petitions, riots—it may have worked for the Boston Tea Party, but it won’t work for ours. It’s time to think ahead a little, MVHS.
The controversial dance policy that caused an uproar on School Loop is back with a vengeance, and this time students have had enough. According to a majority of students on the thread, the time to act is this Saturday night at the Homecoming dance.
Upon creation, the first infamous thread was hailed as a civilized and mature way to express student opinions, and initially, it seemed like it was. Calling for boycotts and petitions, the new thread seems just as sophisticated. But just because it’s coherent and relatively free of vulgarity doesn’t mean it’s smart. These actions are brilliant displays of defiance and unity — a valiant way to stick it to administration — but upon closer inspection, some of the proposed "solutions" to the policy will have devastating economic repercussions on the student body. Unfortunately, it looks like our "mature" students are just too short-sighted to see it.
Whether it’s a petition or an insouciant avoidance of the policy, it all comes down to some form of a boycott: safe, passive-aggressive, and seemingly mature. If it is pulled off, the boycott would demonstrate incredible organizational ability on the students’ part, and administration would be mighty impressed. But for the student body, that’s as far as the Pyrrhic victory will go.
ASB stands for Associated Student Body. This is the group that works tirelessly to make school more fun, exciting, and engaging for us students. So when we’re paying for a school event and that money goes to ASB, what we’re giving away will ultimately come back to us, whether it be in the form of club funding or Freshman Fling.
According to ASB Vice President senior Cat Shieh, ASB makes about $12,000 per dance, excluding formals. That’s a total of $36,000 that ASB is making off of dances. If the boycott works, the student body would be cutting off a third of ASB’s revenue from dances. A detail to note: administration is nowhere in this equation. Furthermore, they’ve made it painfully clear that there’ll be no working around this new policy. So why make ASB, and in effect, us, pay for a policy we didn’t create?
If students are looking for some real change, they should consider speaking to administration directly with the intent of gaining some insight into the situation, to see how best to compromise. The Dance Committee doesn’t seem to be doing much as of now, but maybe that’s not entirely administration’s fault. I’d like to think that if the students were less disparaging, administration would be less defensive. If we allowed ourselves a slight shift in attitude, we might be able to come to an agreement — the mature way.
It’s highly myopic and melodramatic of the student body to jump on a boycott bandwagon without considering its economic ramifications. What our students need, more than another night of debauchery, is some perspective and forethought. We’re going down in MVHS history — let’s do it with our wallets in tact.
