Nan on "Grinding" at dances impinges on our freedom while doing nothing to prepare us for real world

By Steve Mosley
As students at BHS, we have little freedom for six hours of the day. We are told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Teachers tell us to take out our books, flip to page 1, read and answer the questions. You write all the answers down and then the teacher comes over and corrects you, telling you to do it all over again. Last but not least, if it’s not done on time you get yelled at and your grade goes down.


Dances are a rare time – only four or five times a year – when students should be able to do what they want. Honestly, what is more personal then how you move your own body?

The administration is trying to ban the close, front-to-back contact known as “grinding” from the school dances. Since last fall, the rule has been girls are not allowed to put their hands on their knees or on the floor. The policy came into effect after our Halloween dance, where more than one girl complained about being touched inappropriately.

This kind of behavior does need to be dealt with, but the no-grinding policy is not the way to do it. First of all, the administration needs to toughen up and be more alert about drinking at dances. Alcohol certainly seems like it was a factor in what happened at the Halloween dance.

The other problem with the no-grinding policy is how it’s affecting attendance at the dances – and, hence, the money that classes are able to raise. During the Halloween dance, the junior class made more than $1,000. At the very next dance a month later, billed as the “Classy not Trashy” dance, barely $400 was raised.

Junior Class Officer Nick Zenkin said he was shocked by the dramatic drop in the number of students when he looked over the crowd in December. There were a lot fewer kids and most were freshman and sopho-mores. These losses in money are going to affect what future classes have to pay for prom and senior breakfast.

Assistant Principal Mr. Sullivan acknowledged the effect the policy has had on dance attendance, but he said it wasn’t the administration’s job to figure out how the classes can raise money. He said that was up to student councils.

The way we dance might be shocking to some older people, but I would say to those people: think about what you did as a teen-ager, and how some of the older people at that time reacted. Young people are always pushing the limits of new trends, and grinding is just the way we were brought up to dance.

Believe it or not, when Elvis was on TV in the 1950s at one of his concerts, they actually censored out his body movements from the waist down because they thought it was too inappropriate.

Dances should be a time of freedom for students. The administration might argue that we can dance how we want on our own time, but the school dances should be our time.

Also, isn’t part of this school’s mission to prepare us for the real world once we graduate? And don’t people grind in the real world? Yes, they do. And do they sometimes get too aggressive and make others uncomfortable? Yes, they do.

If we do not learn how to deal with this situation now, how are we going to know what to do when it comes up later? Girls need to be able to say no and stick up for themselves because the administration isn’t going to be there when some older guy is touching them inappropriately. And boys need to be able to control themselves and learn how to accept “no.”

If we cannot dance the way we want to, why should there even be a dance in the first place? Dances should be a time to do what you want as long as it’s nothing illegal.