Are 's winter dances getting a little too racy?
High school administrators think so and they're starting to crack down on the school's two annual winter dances — "ICE" in December and "Glow" in January, both known to many students as "the slut dances."
"It's time to change the cultures of these (dances)," Seaholm Principal Deanna Lancaster said at a Jan. 13 meeting with Seaholm's Kick Off Mentors group, according to a Jan. 23 article in the Seaholm Highlander. "I talked to (Principal Fred) Proctor at , and their rule is 'face to face and leave some space' — and that's basically what's going to happen."
The initiative began with Lancaster, who is in her first year as principal at Seaholm, after the school's Dec. 20 dance. Lancaster said she was shocked at students' racy dancing, skimpy clothing and inappropriate behavior and she immediately began working to implement a new slate of rules for Seaholm dances.
"I attempted to curb the inappropriate behavior in December," Lancaster said in a phone interview this week. "But I didn't go about it in the right way. ... It's up to me to make it clear what the expectations are."
The new rules had their first test run at the Jan. 20 Glow dance, Seaholm's alternative to a Sadie Hawkins dance, which raises funds for prom in the spring. The new rules included:
- Enforcing a dress code in which everyone had to wear white jeans or leggings — no skirts.
- Holding the dance earlier in the evening, immediately after a basketball game.
- Moving the venue from the cafeteria to the atrium by the pool.
To prepare students beforehand, Lancaster had mandatory class meetings, showing students various outfits that were appropriate and inappropriate for Glow.
"I want people to have fun," Lancaster said at a class presentation before the dance. "I'd rather have people here than out doing whatever. Anytime I can get you to a school thing, I think that's great, but it's school, it's not the club."
Initial student feedback was wary. Student Congress member Jean Miller told the Highlander she was doubtful the new rules will have much of an impact now or in the future.
"The administration is going to see that the dress for these dances is not going to change simply by changing the ... venue of it."
However, Lancaster said Glow was a major success and the students who attended had fun.
Lancaster said about 300 students arrived at the basketball game wearing white clothes that matched the dress code for the dance, and only about 175 stayed for the dance. But of those 175 students, Lancaster said school administrators had zero issues.
"I didn't have to talk to a single kid," she said this week.
Parental feedback was also positive, Lancaster reported, particularly among parents of ninth- and 10th-graders.
"We are working to change the culture of dances at Seaholm," Lancaster said. "And it's among the younger generation where you begin to make that change."
