Freshman Sonia Singh went to the dance and enjoyed herself. She was more entertained by the dancing than upset or startled.
“The seniors were being really hilarious. I didn’t really think it was that bad,” Singh said. “I mean there were a couple people that were dancing in an awkward way for the rest of us. It was just entertaining.”
ASB’s goal was to get at least 200 signatures on their petition before giving it to the administration, and as soon as they reached this, they delivered their letter and the signatures to the office.
One of the first 200 people to sign the petition was junior Ana Matoo. She first saw ASB’s letter shared many times on Facebook and decided to take a look. After reading it at home, she went to the rally court during lunch on Sept. 16 to sign the petition. Matoo hopes this letter will clarify the confusion surrounding dance protocol.
All it’s asking is to specify what is inappropriate because ‘inappropriate’ is a widely used term which different people have different definitions [for]. And as I remember, [administrators] weren’t really giving a definition.”
Junior Ana Matoo
Singh forgot to sign the letter, but she agrees with ASB’s goal. She thinks that communication is necessary so that various administrators don’t have different responses about appropriate dance behavior.
Not only do administrators have differing ideas, students and faculty may not see eye to eye. Sophomore Jonathan Logie believes that in order for students to know how they are expected to behave at dances, the administration needs to make clear rules. Logie believes that there are some dance moves that should not be done, but, according to him, students are being rebuked for moves that are in a gray area. He thinks students should be told a specific set of rules at an assembly.
“I think that they have good points because there are certain lines that you shouldn’t cross that the [administrators] make very clear,” Logie said. “But some people are getting in trouble for things they didn’t even know were against the rules.”
Matoo has been told that students should dance like they would in front of their parents, but, according to her, some parents are more relaxed than others, so this is not a definitive answer.
Singh hopes that there will be more conversation after administration looks at the letter and that specific rules are laid out, so events like those of the Welcome Back Dance don’t occur again.
“I hope that [administrators] actually consider it and they actually think about it because it is a good idea,” Singh said. “It’s not requesting that any type of dancing should be allowed. It’s just requesting better communication.”
