Scarborough Middle School students held their first school dance of the year Friday, with school staff – not parent volunteers – supervising under new rules designed to prevent inappropriate behavior, which caused the cancellation of dances last year.
The new rules – and rumors about them – led some students to avoid the dance altogether, while student organizers said they were glad to find a way to have the social event, which drew 150 kids.
Dances will be held once a quarter, and each grade will have separate events to improve adults’ ability to supervise everyone. The smaller dances will also allow them to be held at the middle school, rather than Wentworth Intermediate School, where the 500-person all-middle-school dances had to be held for lack of space at the middle school.
Friday night’s dance was the first one held at the middle school in about five years. “At the middle school it’s easier to control and we know the kids,” said middle school Principal Joanne Sizemore.
Student Council members Emma Kane and Andrea Blodgett, who helped organize Friday’s dance, said they had worried the school would not host any more dances because of last year’s problems, and were happy school staff had figured out a way to work through the issue.
“We have five different wings, so this is a time we can see our friends and hang out,” Kane said.
Staff members, rather than parents – often volunteers with the booster groups sponsoring the event – were the chaperones at the dance. Students were required to have a permission slip signed by parents before attending the dance. Those who did not submit a completed form during the school week could have had their parents sign one the night of the dance.
School counselors Melissa Jones and Tricia Mokriski, who were chaperoning Friday’s event, said the permission slips gave students notice that they would be held accountable for their behavior while at the dance. In addition, the fact that school staff were chaperoning the event gave students notice that there would be consequences for poor behavior.
“They were afraid they wouldn’t be having (dances),” Jones said, adding that students had been excited throughout the week for the event and peppering her with questions about the dance. “They provide students with a positive place to come and hang out with their friends; they’re safe and supervised.”
The only real problem at the dance was caused by high school students, according to Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse, who worked the event. High school students leaving a bonfire for the soccer team tried to crash the dance by crawling through the windows of the cafeteria, but were foiled when they were spotted. As Rouse approached, they ran off.
The changes made to the dances caused several rumors to start spreading around the school. One was that the lights were going to be turned on, which turned out not to be true; students inside the cafeteria were able to dance in near-darkness.
Students also heard that there was not going to be any slow dances and for an hour on Friday night there was only dance music being played, but school staff said it was not banned; the changes were due to students’ tastes.
Some students did not like what they expected the changes to be and decided not to attend. Many of them visited a friend’s house for a parent-supervised party.
One of those was Cassie Skelly, an eighth-grader who thought the new arrangements would cause a stricter and less fun environment.
She also did not like the fact that the dances are now grade-specific, a move she thought would create a less social event.
“I liked how it used to be,” she said, adding that the dances provided students of different grades a chance to see each other. “Now they’re separated and graded so it’s not going to be as big or as fun,” she said.
Skelly was especially upset that the behavior of a couple of students could impact the entire school and had caused drastic changes to the dances that she and her friends had enjoyed attending.
“One or two people ruined it for everybody,” she said. “I’m really bummed out because it was all I looked forward to at school.”
A group of students dance during Friday night
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