Where is District 91 School Board Leadership?
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The Post Register reported this morning that the Skyline High School student council is debating rules to reduce sexually-charged activities at school dances. The rules prohibit grinding, straddling, bending over, touching sexual body parts, making out, and removing clothes during dances. The student council has not voted on this issue yet, and I think instead they should vote to encourage their district school board to set rules district-wide.
At first I thought the kids should be allowed to do what they want. However, when the school facilities are taxpayer-funded, we expect those facilities to be used for more appropriate educational activities. I understand the need for social activities, but I don’t think we taxpayers need to fund facilities so teenagers can have a place to engage in sexual activities. Allowing these kind of activities leads to taxpayers refusing to pass bonds on new facilities.
I thought about when we were teenagers, were we any better? Of course we engaged in sexual groping and experimentation, but it was not at school dances. We engaged in those activities when we were able to engineer moments alone, and we had to earn those moments. These kids seem to think those moments should be provided to them by the school, and that is completely wrong.
Some teenagers will feel their freedoms have been trampled, and they are free to not attend activities where they cannot do the things they want to do. If fact I encourage those students to organize dances themselves. Pool their money together and rent a local facility for your own dance where grinding and whatnot is allowed. My buddy was organizing entire raves with nationally-famous DJs at age 18, so do not think this is impossible for young people. But do not holler when you cannot do the same things at a publicly-funded educational facility.
Then I wondered why the Skyline High School student council was being forced to debate this issue at all. Why doesn’t school district 91 have a district-wide policy on appropriate dance activities? I can understand wanting to give students more power and choice in their lives, but are we going to let them decide if guns should be allowed on campus, or campus smoking policies?
What happened in this instance was the school board didn’t want to look like the bad guys, so they pushed this unpopular decision off to the student councils. The student councils are then in the awkward position where they want to do the right thing but face inevitable scorn from their peers. The PR article noted that the Skyline French Club lost $500 on a dance they sponsored because of this issue. The school board members should be ashamed of themselves.
I think the Skyline High School student council should vote against these dance rules, and instead vote to urge their school board to stop shirking their leadership duties. The district 91 school board should be setting this type of policy, not students themselves.
What do you think?
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Comments
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0 I think that the school was attempting to have this change happen from the students, so what happened at the french club dance would not happen. This started with the principal coming to the student council and asking for something to be done. Then there was a committee made and a guidline was put into place. The problem I had was that “committee” was a small group of people that quikly passed and implemented these rules. The students were not notified of the meeting and once those rules were in place they were not (according to my knowledge) tell the students about these new rules untill the dance, and once the got kicked out they would not receive a refund . So , I told everyone i knew about these new rules. But when the dance came up ( i didn’t go ) the rules they followed were ones they made up on the spot and were puritanical. I was informed you couldnt even touch other people.
“But do not holler when you cannot do the same things at a publicly-funded educational facility.”
Another thing I have to say is that the school doesn’t pay for anything of the dances, It’s 100% out of the students pocket and are put on by different clubs and organizations. Also most of the dances are not held at the school, there only at the school usually when its a cheaper of a dance .
Also people at the dances arent having sex there just having a fun time dancing. I have been to the dances and think that the schhool board is over reacting.
I think the final qeustion is should the school just drop association from the dance because the are organized decorated and put on by the students and in most cases held in locations other than the school. For example homecoming was held in the giant white tent thing at taylors crossing tht they put up . They Administartion need s to make up there minds to allow the students to do what they need to do
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0 0 Pretty much what Frank said. If the school district had forced this on the students there would have been mass rebellion and the students would probably en masse start grinding at the next dance as a protest. The school district was hoping that if it came from the students there would be more acceptance.
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0 0 lol yeah emphasis on the hoping but unfortunatley it was still protested. But some school administartors now are trying to say other factors influenced the dance being not a success. Like : it was to close to christmas or other excuses, but we all know the real reason. Also when they kicked peopl out they fromed a group outside of the dance that was bigger than the group inside
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0 0 Just for the record, the School Board was at the dance. I attended because we have discussed this issue and I have personally received a number of calls from parents. In addition to the calls, a number of Skyline students have also expressed concern to me. Making decisions and setting policy is the easy part. Helping our students learn the lessons that enable them to beome productive contributing adults is an entirely different challenge.
I stayed until most of the students had left and did not see any group of “outside” dancers. By my count there were about seven or eight adults at the dance, including school administrators. Helping students learn to self govern, and everything that goes with it, is an important part of education. I can be reached at 524-9136.
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0 0 It’s admirable to see the school board try to give decision-making opportunities to students, but not all decisions are appropriate for students to decide for themselves. Sometimes it isn’t appropriate because the students are too young to know what’s best for themselves, and other times such as this it isn’t appropriate because it sets the students up for infighting.
It’s cases such as this where the public taxpayers wonder if the school board was trying to honestly dole out opportunities to students or if they didn’t want to be the bad guys to make the tough decision. I think it’s the later in this case.
The district 91 school board should vote on a district-wide dance policy at their very next meeting and put this issue to an end among students.
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0 0 It’s not only District 91 that has this disgusting problem. District 93 does as well. If my children were old enough to attend these dances, I really don’t know if I would let them go. If they did, I’d want to go with them, but I’d probably be invited not to come back after the first time……….
First off, the Administrators need to develop a back bone and send these kids home if they are behaving inappropriately. From what I’ve been told by friends and neighbors who’ve been to these dances as chaperons, if these kids did these things while walking down the street, they’d be booked in jail for lewd conduct and public indecency. I don’t know why it even needs to be debated or even brought before the school board, let alone the student councils.
I think there’s a life’s lesson that could be taught here. Obviously these kids cannot handle the freedoms they have been given, so just like in the outside world when a privilege is taken advantage of it is withdrawn, ergo these kids should be invited to leave if they cannot behave.
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0 0 I have to agree with LR_Import. WHY is this even an issue? Who the hell is in charge, the students or the faculty? The students who don’t like the policy can leave the dance - with a police escort if necessary. The same for the ones who decide to create their own private freak dance in the parking lot. If they are there without permission they are now trespassing and can be cited.
Parents who think there is nothing wrong with this type of behavior need to undergo some serious counseling. Or be prepared to become grandparents before they’re 35.
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0 0 I can’t even believe this is a post! Like cafe said…..”why is this even an issue”? The same thing happened when we were kids so what’s the big deal? Maybe it didnt happen as much in your smaller towns/schools, but it happens and it’s not like it’s a big deal. The teachers deal with it and reprimand the appropriate parties doing the “grinding” or “dirty dancing” but to make a post about it, like it’s something new, is just plain ridiculous.
Kids will be kids and we all know the raging hormones that teens have to deal with. Joe stated that groping, grinding and the like never occured during the dances he went to in school…..well then either he didn’t notice it, he went to a really small school, or he just didn’t go to that many dances. It’s been happening for ages and it certainly happened in my time when I went to dances in Jr. & Sr High. Sure we need to set bounderies and rules for our teens to abide by during such dances, but c’mon it’s going to happen regardless. Why blow it out of proportion and make it a bigger deal than it really is? Our kids are going to experiment whether we want them to or not. The best we can do is educate them at an early age and keep good values and morals instilled in their daily lives. But lets not enact any more rules and regulations for them at these dances and functions to where they won’t even want to attend. The rules in place now are just fine. Enforce them and move on because as I see it, it’s not any different from when you and I were teens many decades ago.
As long as we lay the proper moral groundwork for our children, I believe they’ll make the right decisions. And if they don’t……well that’s part of “growing up”.
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0 0 Well I’m sure it happened at our dances too, but our dances were heavily chaperoned so those kids got thrown out quickly and you learned to not do that if you didn’t want to lose your few bucks you paid to get into the dance.
How about another perspective on this, the businessman’s perspective? The DJ to many of these dances said in the article that what he witnessed was “like dogs in heat out there”, and he was considering eliminating some of the songs that appeared to motivate more of those behaviors. So the DJ thinks the behavior is too much for their age.
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0 0 I agree with Joe on this one. While I can see CR67’s point that kids will be kids and experiment anyway, I don’t agree that this type of behavior needs to be condoned on school grounds or at school activities. One of the biggest parts of growing up is learning to behave appropriately in public places, or whatever social or workplace situation in which one finds themselves. There is a time and a place for most things, as there are times and places that are definitely wrong for some things.
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0 0 Sure we need to keep it to a minimum and set rules for our children, but times change and so does the dancing. The same thing was happening back when Elvis was popular. Parents hated all the gyrating and hip movements he was doing, but the kids loved it. Every few years dance styles change and dancing gets a little more risque, but that’s life. You’re not going to change or stop what’s popular in music and/or dance moves.
I’d really like to see some younger posters points of view on this topic. As it seems it’s just the older folks that seem to be so upset over this issue. Times change, and you can either change with them or stay stuck in the past. Personally I think too big a deal is being made over it. But that’s just me.
If you look at dancing throughout history, it’s constantly evolved and changed and every generation has had issues with whatever was popular at the time. It’s no different today.
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0 0 I don’t think it’s the gyrating I’m objecting to as much as it is the school board not setting consistent policy for all its school dances…
And then, they pass off that policy decision to the students, who have to take the heat for the decisions from their peers.
It seems to me that the school board is HOPING the students choose to disallow the dirty dancing, and take the heat on their behalf…because think about it, what if the students voted to mandate dirty dancing, encourage grinding and gyrating, and encourage risque dancing in general???
You can bet the school board would step in, then. So if they have a standard they already want to see, why not take the heat on their own elected heads and be the ones to mandate the behavior, themselves?
No spine. Foist off the dirty work. Pretend you’re doing them a favor, because the students need to get a taste of the real world, where making an unpopular decision can lose you the next election.
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0 0 Oh, come ON now - place the blame where it REALLY belongs!
How can Tom Luna and the State Board of Education allow this travesty of state child-raising? We don’t want kids from uptight districts sneaking into other, more tolerant districts, do we? NO! We need a state-wide policy on school dances!!
Oh wait, the State Board of Education doesn’t have even the educational acumen to balance a budget!
I find the paternalism expressed here frightening. Why should the School Board deal with this crap? They’ve got enough real problems to deal with.
Bravo to teaching kids that it’s difficult to be a self-regulating society, and that, sometimes people are unhappy, or even financially hurt, when bad policies are implemented. The solution isn’t for “daddy” to step in to fix it - the solution is for Student Council to go back and try again (perhaps with more public input this time).
Sure, the Administration still needs to step in if the decisions are unsafe or grossly inappropriate, but these are High Schoolers who will be (we should hope) voting on taxes, bonds, candidates, and Constitutional amendments - some as soon as May!
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0 0 Guest_66, you find the paternalism here frightening? That’s quite a strong negative statement about the persons making the comments that you disagree with. Why not just disagree with us in a civil manner, and state your own case?
And I’m not sure what other, “more important crap” the school board has to deal with. My understanding is that they set policies and budget for the district schools.
Seems to me this is a policy, and one the school board will have an interest in if it isn’t set the way they would approve. Therefore it seems very odd that for such a controversial decision, they won’t accept the responsibility to make it themselves.
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0 0 CR67 asked for some input from younger people. I graduated from IFHS in 2006 and am now attending college. This is an absurd concern at the high school level. Even at college, where creating those “moments alone” isn’t at all difficult, and where 18 to 20 year olds are drinking, even in this environment grinding and such does not translate into sex. It’s dancing, and both parties recognize that.
That isn’t to say that dancing with someone and getting physical in other ways, be it sex or not, are entirely unrelated, but this is the case even with milder forms of dancing, unless we insist on the rather draconian measure of disallowing contact altogether.
As far as self-regulation, growth, and maturity are concerned: let go! One of the biggest reasons students at the college level have alcohol problems (especially freshmen) is that they have been “protected” from it, then allowed to do what they would like without guidance. In many other countries, youth encounter alcohol for the first time in a safe setting where they can receive care and guidance from their family. What keeps problems from developing is that they learn their limits, what is expected of them, and how to be safe before they are put in an environment where abuse of freedom is easy. I am not saying that we should be giving children alcohol, but the principle applies equally to other areas of teens’ lives.
LR_Import said that “obviously these kids cannot handle the freedoms they have been given.” This is entirely backwards. Youth need to be given freedoms, but this must come with an understanding of expectations. Ultimately, the students will have to learn to regulate themselves, and they cannot do this if they are not permitted to explore their boundaries, make mistakes, and decide on their own to change their behavior for the better. Although college is traditionally the time for “self-discovery,” two thirds of Idaho students do not have this opportunity. I would assert, as a general principle, that giving students opportunities to define their own boundaries, with appropriate guidance - primarily from their parents, hopefully - is a positive thing to be encouraged. The solution isn’t state or school board mandated codes of conduct, but rather guidelines regarding what behavior is appropriate in what contexts.
I think Old Phart makes the most relevant comment; that is, that the setting may be inappropriate. It may be the case that grinding at a school dance is unacceptable, but the important part is that the students themselves be allowed to determine this and decide on appropriate consequences - whether that is police escorted removal, as CafeDelSol suggests, or simply a request to find a more appropriate setting for a behavior deemed intimate.
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0 0 I discussed this today at work with my friend (he is the one who first pointed me towards this website.)
He was surprised that I would take the stance I chose, that the school board should take the initiative to set the standards rather than force this decision on individual schools at the student council level. (I am usually very much a libertarian liberal, if there is such an animal).
He felt it was important for the students to set the standards and be subject to their peers’ scorn or approval, as it was a great learning experience for the real world.
It seems the quite a few commenters, including the last Anonymous posting, concur with that.
I think those are valid comments. However, I think the school board needs to either stay out of the picture for all these types of policy decisions, or they should set the district wide standards themselves. This holds whether we’re discussing dress standards, or codes of conduct at dances, etc etc.
I’m all for students having the say, if they get the final say for all these kinds of policies. But the school board doesn’t let the student councils make all these types of decisions, and it just seems like in this particular area there must be some outside (read, political) motivation to force the student council into having to take the heat.
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0 0 The reasons students at Skyline are handling this matter is because many of the students have noticed that, compared to Bonneville, Hillcrest, and Idaho Falls, they believe that they have the worst/naughtiest dancing in the area. In fact, there is even a nickname going around called the “Grizzly Grind” Needless to say, most of the students weren’t proud of this, and so they decided to make a committee and decide what is and is not appropriate. Did you know that at the Sadie Hawkins dance last year (the theme was a jungle theme) some girls purposefully dressed as and called themselves the ‘Jungle Sluts’? The students who do it are sadly proud of it. Skirts that should be called belts, transparent fabric, and suggestive clothes were 1/2 of the problem. The other half were the moves themselves. I’m not sure if you have seen teenagers dance lately, but its disgusting! Where are their morals and values?!
Skyline students noticed that this problem was huge at their school and decided to change it. Why hasn’t the school board done anything? To tell the truth, I think the district does have some sort of rules set out for dances, the problem is enforcing them, and so Skyline Students have also come up with how they would like chaperons to act if they see this behavior. District-wide policies are usually loose and then the district expects the school to further add rules as they see fit for their group of students. An example of this is, until recently, IF’s students were allowed to use cell phones at lunch and passing periods, but Skyline students had cell phones banned at ALL times between 8:30 and 3:30. Skyline recently changed this policy due to the student body’s commendable performance in the canned food drive.
In short? Dances are hard to monitor, and any rules that were already in place were not being enforced. Students at Skyline were sick of it and decided to take action. Ladies and Gentlemen, another example of the future leaders of our society in action.
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0 0 Thanks for the input, music_girl. I guess if the stricter standards were a student initiated action (someone told me this at work after hearing about my comments on this post) then the students deserve to receive the accolades or slings and arrows, themselves.
And, yes, I’m sure it’s been enlightening to them, the response they’ve received.
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0 0 I really must question the fact that this was the cause of the French Club’s loss since many kids hadn’t even heard about the new standards. However, the dance wasn’t at the best time, so close to the break, and while it did appear to be advertised ok, I don’t believe the excitement was really stirred up at Skyline, especially because the Winter Ball was cancelled the previous 2 years.
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0 0 Hi Joe, just trying to get to you somehow; sent an email and tried to post in the message box but I have been blocked by you for some reason????
Let me know what I need to do…..
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0 0 I’m late getting to some of these comments. I reverted the chatbox to an earlier version so hopefully that should stop the “spammer” error messages you folks were getting. If any problems please let me know.
Has anything happened or changed on this subject since the schools have been back in session a couple weeks now?
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0 0 They had another student council meeting and sent all the class reps back to tell everyone that the rules really aren’t as bad as they seem, and they WAY downplayed them saying that they ‘weren’t really that different’ and the consequences ‘weren’t that bad’ and that basically you just use your common sense so hopefully there will be no more loss of money
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0 0 Please let us know when they have their next dance and how it goes.
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0 0 You’re not going to stop kids from dancing the way they want to. You may try, but it probably won’t happen. If they get kicked out of the dance, it’s really not a big deal because they’ll still dance that way at friends house parties, etc. Dancing like a stripper is all the craze these days and we can thank MTV, VH1, and all the shows that these networks put on the air these days. However, the issue still comes back to the parents. If the parents still aren’t regulating what their children see on tv and in the movies, nothing will ever change. I personally think the blame should go on the parents, not the kids. Sure we can blame it on the media but it still boils down to what you let you kids watch. They’ve had the “v-chip” in tv’s for decades now, so there’s no reason to think nothing can be done.
Remember that the more we try to stop our young ones from expressing themselves, the more they will rebel. I say, let them dance!
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0 0 I really don’t mean to be crude, but exactly where do you draw the line between dancing and dry-humping? Shouldn’t there be a line drawn somewhere?
The previous post confuses me. On the one hand they blame the parents for everything the kids do. Then on the other hand they say let the kids do whatever they want. Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.
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0 0 I have been to these dances and they may have dirty dancing but why do people focus on that? i know for a fact aproximately 50% of the kids at these dances have consumed more than one alcoholic drink and some cannot even walk. how is it possible teachers and adults do not notice? this is a MUCH larger issue than type of dancing. Are the teachers just ignoring the fact that kids are drunk at a school activity or are they really so blind they do not see it? teachers and adult cannot be as stupid as they seem can they? let us dance how we want. enforce ACTUAL laws that may be life changing.
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0 0 Very good point anonymous! The thing is, the same thing has been going on since school dances have been happening. It happened when I was in school and it’s going to happend years from now. Kids would hang out in their cars before going in and they’d down a few beers or smoke a joint and then go into the dance. Kids will be kids, plain and simple. The thing is, the teachers can’t stop it unless they catch you in the act or they smell alcohol or pot on your person. But with the dirty dancing, its happening right in front of them, so its something their going to focus on much more.
Perhaps schools should have an assembly regarding this issue and have Q & A sessions. Get these issues out in the open and let the kids give their input. I think this type of thing would be much more productive and it would let the kids know that their thoughts and feelings towards these issues are not falling on deaf ears.
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0 0 Hm. I found this site while googling “Grizzly Grind” to see if it was really that well-known- I hadn’t heard of the phrase until they brought it up at the Student Council meeting in December.
At the meeting, two committees were made- one to investigate dancing standards, the other to investigate dress code. I was assigned to the dress code one which I found ridiculous since there was already a policy listed in the student planner, which eliminated the need for a committee.
The committee for dance standards did meet once or twice, but I heard their meetings weren’t well attended, and when the policy was drafted, it came mainly from the administration, with seemingly little student input. If I remember correctly, we didn’t ratify it- one of the vice principals told us what the policy was.
German Club’s Sweetheart Ball (last Saturday) was a success- they sold over 100 tickets and made quite a bit of money (which is good news for the clubs- French club’s loss of $500 out of pocket was a depressing sign for the future of club fundraising, dancewise).
There were a few people grinding, and interestingly enough the chaperones didn’t intervene each time. Then again, the students in question weren’t out for sex- they just dance like that, I suppose.
I’ve talked to some of my fellow students, and for us the biggest problem with putting in dance standards is the effect on the clubs who put them on.
Two years ago, income for clubs took a hit when healthy food standards were applied- Debate couldn’t do their lolipop fundraiser, and the foreign language clubs struggled to figure out what they could sell. Yes, health standards are needed in today’s world of increasing obesity, but the stores were among the primary sources of income for the foreign language clubs.
Dances are another source of funds for clubs, so when we heard that French Club lost a considerable amount of money due to low attendance, many were concerned. If students begin boycotting dances, how exactly are clubs supposed to support themselves? There’s only so many concessions available to work. The German Club dance was sort of the canary to see if dances could still be profitable under the new policy. Clearly, they can.
Hm… that was longer than I intended. Oh well, I guess it’s been on my mind for a while…
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0 0 My stepson went to the dance last weekend with his girlfriend. They danced all the slow dances but sat out the faster ones because they don’t know how to grind very well and felt that was the expectation…so they just enjoyed the ’show’.
They had a good time.
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0 0 No Danielle that was good to hear. Funny to hear that after all that hubbub the chaperons did not even enforce the rules!
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0 0 eh, I think they did enforce it some of the time- I did see the chaperones patrolling around. Instead of a large mass of hormonal grinding teenagers like at Homecoming earlier in the year, there were only a handful of people dirty dancing.
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I think you’re right, why is this not a district wide policy? And, if students don’t like it, they have other options. But for heck’s sake, this is not a school-by-school decision, whether to allow groping and grinding.
The school board needs to get a spine, here.