Nearly 10 years since the complaints started, Calif Principal bans "freak dancing"

DeltaSigStan · #1 01-10-2005, 01:23 PM

Another case of staff forgetting what it's like to be young. It's not like the kids are having full-on intercourse on the dance floor, and how the fuck are they supposed to dance? Waltz? Polka?

BTW, I realize they have every right to ban dances, but it's not going to solve the problem....there are other places to party and dance like that....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../dirty_dancing

LEMOORE, Calif. - Fed up with students' racy moves, a principal at a California high school has taken the unusual step of canceling the rest of this year's school dances.

Principal Jim Bennett of Lemoore Union High School said he warned students at a winter formal dance last month to either quit dirty dancing or face the possibility of not dancing at all.

But he said the students continued "freak dancing," a form of sexually suggestive dancing that involves grinding the hips and pelvic area.

The ban on dances includes the school's Sadie Hawkins dance in February and the junior and senior proms in the spring, but Bennett said they could be rescheduled if students modify their behavior.

"It's really up to the kids at this point. They have to take some responsibility," Bennett said.

Organizers of the Sadie Hawkins dance, a fund-raiser for the school's Future Farmers of America, are working with Bennett to come up with a series of regulations, which could allow that dance to go on.

One idea is to let students sign a form stating that raunchy dancing will get them kicked out.

Students hope similar regulations could lead to the reinstatement of other dances, particularly the prom.

"Some students save up all year to buy a dress or rent a tuxedo and buy flowers for the prom," said student body president Zohra Lakhani, a 17-year-old senior. "To crush everyone's dreams, it's not fair."

James · #2 01-10-2005, 02:09 PM

Just play slow waltzy music . . . that shoul be acceptable to the uptight people in charge.,

DeltaSigStan · #3 01-10-2005, 02:31 PM

Why don't they just make it a "Kids Incorporated" themed dance?

All they'd play is Mickey Rap. You can't freak to "Whoop, There (Mickey) went"

sugar and spice · #4 01-10-2005, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltaSigStan
Another case of staff forgetting what it's like to be young. It's not like the kids are having full-on intercourse on the dance floor, and how the fuck are they supposed to dance? Waltz? Polka?

BTW, I realize they have every right to ban dances, but it's not going to solve the problem....there are other places to party and dance like that....

Haha -- to be fair, they very well might be having sex on the dance floor. My little sister was on student council in high school and swears that after one dance, they found a used condom on the dance floor. Dances at our school were always packed enough that you could probably get away with it. I'm guessing this was not an isolated incident.

But yeah, as long as the kids aren't having sex, I don't see the problem. Remember when Elvis was scandalous?

XOMichelle · #5 01-10-2005, 05:31 PM

Wow- that's pretty bad. I say if they are having sex, break them up and kick them out, but that really sucks for those kids.

Taualumna · #6 01-11-2005, 08:44 AM

What EXACTLY is "freak dancing"? Were the kids simulating sex or were they just "grinding their hips"? I can understand the problem faculty might have if they were doing the former.

CutiePie2000 · #7 01-11-2005, 04:36 PM

It's dirty dancing...i.e. "getting your freak on".

You're welcome.

AOII_LB93 · #8 01-11-2005, 09:06 PM

You know, a few years ago I would have said "Let the kids do what they want as long as they are not getting naked," but that was before I chaperoned Sadie Hawkins and Homecoming the last two years where I work. It's a school sponsored function, you shouldn't look like you are f-ing on the dance floor. I graduated when "dirty dancing" and freaking just started, but we certainly did not do what I've seen my students doing. It makes bootie videos on MTV look tame sometimes to be quite honest (and I'm no saint, nor am I 800 years old).

Unless you have recently chaperoned a high school dance and actually seen what people my younger sister's age (15) and younger for that matter are doing, it's hard to comment on this. Canceling all school dances is extreme, and at the school I teach at we don't expect waltzing or polkas as someone pointed out earlier, but we do expect the students to not look like they are doing the nasty on the floor. They even sign dance contracts, which among other things require them to dress appropriately(according to school code--as it is a school function), and not freak dance, or face warnings and if warnings happen more than once you are kicked out of the dance, end of story.

It's not like freaking doesn't go on because it does, but it has been limited of late and what I have seen has still been really risque. I highly DOUBT a lot of these kids would dance like that in front of their church parish, parents or grandparents, so why should I have to see it?

Would you want your younger sister simulating sex on the dance floor at a school dance? How about your daughter or son? I haven't forgotten what it's like to be young, I'm 28, and yes I freaked at the last formal I went to (ok it was a few years ago, but still), but I'm an adult, there were no "adult chaperones" who had to sit there watching. You can bet your a$$ that I wouldn't dance that way in front of my dad though.

Taualumna · #9 01-12-2005, 12:04 AM

OK, I must be getting old (at 25!!!

) because this is the first time I've ever heard of "freak dancing"! I went to my prom in '98 (since this has apparently been going on for 10 years or so) and while we did grind our hips to Spice Girls and the like, I didn't notice any simulated sex on the dance floor.

CutiePie2000 · #10 01-12-2005, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taualumna
we did grind our hips to Spice Girls.

I think it's a bit more than just grinding,(i.e. grinding= a la that movie "Dirty Dancing" where sorry to say, that dancing was pretty innocent compared that what goes on today). T

hink more along the lines of Christina Aguilera's "Dirrrrty" video, or shall we say, someone...uh..."receiving it" from behind??!

cntryZTA5 · #11 01-12-2005, 01:26 AM

I agree with AOII_LB93. I've also chaperoned a high school dance recently. The kids look like they're about to have sex on the dance floor. My administrators asked me to walk around with a flashlight so I could see what was going on in the middle of the dance floor.
I don't think the dances should be cancelled, but I do think the students could have a good time without being right on top of each other.

sugar and spice · #12 01-12-2005, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cntryZTA5
I agree with AOII_LB93. I've also chaperoned a high school dance recently. The kids look like they're about to have sex on the dance floor. My administrators asked me to walk around with a flashlight so I could see what was going on in the middle of the dance floor.
I don't think the dances should be cancelled, but I do think the students could have a good time without being right on top of each other.

Yeah, but 30 years ago they were doing the same thing with the flashlights for kids who slow-danced without enough space between them. We all just turn into our parents . . .

My personal take is that you can do what you want to try to stop it, but it's not going to stop. Dancing has just gotten racier with every decade and that's not a trend that's going to reverse with our current culture of sexualization at a younger and younger age. I went to a school where there were also lots of rules enforced on dances after a freshman dance (during my senior year) where dancing was a little too scandalous for the chaperones to handle. Despite all the administration's efforts to the contrary, the dancing hasn't gotten any more innocent. And I don't know -- I don't think that it's that bad. Even if the dancing is really racy, tacky or sexual -- it's still just dancing. Given the rate of teenage sex/growing rate of oral sex and things like this, I think that if we're trying to enforce morality there are much bigger problems that need to be worked on.

Taualumna · #13 01-12-2005, 06:25 PM

Sugar and Spice,

Kids aren't having INTERCOURSE any earlier than they did 10 years ago, but they are doing OTHER THINGS at the middle school level. I also think that we were more aware about sex because the teen magazines talked about it. After Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV+, many of us freaked....and these issues were addressed all over the media. I'm sure most people 22+ remember the episode of 90210 when Steve picks up a guest speaker at the airport, and it turned out that she had HIV. I was 11 when I saw that episode and you know what? It kind of freaked me out.

Senusret I · #14 01-12-2005, 07:54 PM

If a girl is grabbing her ankles in a ball gown, that's a problem. YES, it really looks like they are simulating sex, not "freaking." (From what I have seen as a teacher.)

Canceling the dance is extreme....

I think kids (now adults) from my generation on down really need to learn how to DANCE. Save the freakin' for parties.

AOII_LB93 · #15 01-12-2005, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Senusret I
If a girl is grabbing her ankles in a ball gown, that's a problem. YES, it really looks like they are simulating sex, not "freaking." (From what I have seen as a teacher.)

Canceling the dance is extreme....

I think kids (now adults) from my generation on down really need to learn how to DANCE. Save the freakin' for parties.

Amen to the learning how to DANCE comment, and LOL at the grabbing the ankles...to be quite honest, I've actually seen something like that as a chaperone...that is what I like to call inappropriate for a school function. I'm not turning into my parents, I just think there should be some modicum of decency at a school sponsored function.