Our View: Banning freak dancing at Gilroy High School isn’t the
most serious agenda item, but it’s a positive step for the school
and the community
Against the backdrop of immigration law protest walkouts, the Day of Silence controversy and virtually no progress for years on the Academic Performance Index for Gilroy High School, banning freak dancing at school dances might be viewed as trivial pursuit. But it’s not.
Lap dancing 15-year-old girls and grinding 17-year-old boys are not a sight this community wants to consider appropriate at its lone high school. And the more Gilroy High does to tighten its discipline belt – whether it’s getting tough on coming late to class or acting out in the classroom – the more support the school will garner from the community it serves.
Clear rules that mirror the expectations of the community are important, not only for the students but for the school’s image and for the staff.
Staff chaperones at school dances need to be able to intervene when dancing crosses the line into overtly sexual performance, and be able to impose consequences that were clearly defined to all beforehand.
Parents should be able to send their freshman daughters and sons, and their senior students for that matter, to dances without worrying that they will be subject to undue peer pressure on the dance floor. The message should be clear: “Girls Gone Wild” are, as the pop star Pink recently pointed out in her hit song, really just “Stupid Girls.”
At Gilroy High School now, the rules are clear. Freak dancing is out.
The administration and the district have taken a positive step. Now it’s about enforcing the rules to the standard of community mores.
