Right up front, readers:
"Close, explicit dance puts students, schools far apart" October 21, 2011|By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
The sexually charged dance style known as grinding is more popular than ever, and feeding a wave of dance cancellations, angry protests, and tensions between school administrators and students.
Is this the 1950s?
A growing number of schools in New England have banned the explicit gyrations, saying they border on obscene and embarrass adults and students alike.
Well, if the kids are doing them it obviously is not embarrassing them. And however you feel about the topic, the kids sure are getting a first rate education when it comes to the fascist society they will be immersed in as an adult.
But many students are unfazed by the protests of their elders, and engage in an endless tug of war with their shoulder-tapping chaperones. In some schools, students have protested dirty-dancing crackdowns by boycotting dances. They will dance their way or not dance at all.
It's a start for the kids while the whole world is protesting right now.
The standoff comes as the remake of “Footloose,’’ the dance-as-rebellion movie, opens.
Aaaaaaaaaah!!
A high school in Great Barrington canceled dances indefinitely after some students flouted a ban on the risque dance moves, then left the dance in protest. Last month, a New Hampshire high school called off its homecoming dance, saying so many students were grinding that the chaperones could do little to stop them.
In Hampton, N.H., monthly dances were canceled because of plummeting attendance blamed on the school’s recent ban on the suggestive dancing. Earlier this year, in South Burlington, Vt., the winter ball was called off after grinding was banned.
Principals and teachers have long tangled with teenagers over dance-floor decorum, but the clash over grinding, also known as freak dancing, has at times reached an impasse. In Princeton, N.J., a recent homecoming dance was replaced with a movie. Administrators in Lincoln, Neb., sent a letter home to parents last month explicitly barring dirty dancing among students.
Wasn't that another '80s movie?
Students say the dancing is social, not lascivious as it may seem to adults who are observing, and often involves groups of boys and girls. But administrators say the close-contact bumping and grinding - often done front-to-back - crosses the bounds of good taste, making the days of leaving room for the Holy Spirit seem hopelessly quaint.
Looks like we have a good old generation gap here, huh?
“It’s a little shocking,’’ said Greg Smith, assistant principal of Oakmont Regional High School in Ashburnham.
Last year, administrators became increasingly frustrated with student behavior on the dance floor, and decided it was time to establish clear limits.
“We really couldn’t stand by and watch that,’’ Smith said.
But you can stand by and watch them be sent into wars based on lies, or remain silent while so many lies are spewed forth by the government and its mouthpiece media?
Oh, right, to speak out means the end of the career for the individual, loss of money for the school, and crucifixion of the person in the media (if they are not just ignored).
New rules were spelled out to avoid confusion, and even printed in the student handbook. No movements or gestures that “simulate sexual activities.’’ Hands must remain above the waist and “avoid sensitive areas.’’ No excessive displays of affection.
Yeah, God forbid the schools would want to promote love in this world. Well, they will when it is to bend over for gays. Of course, you can always go talk to the military recruiter, right?
Over time, and with regular reminders from chaperones, students got the message, Smith said.
With accompanying sieg heil salute I hope (editor sardonically sneers).
“Our dances have really calmed down,’’ he said. “Adolescent dancing is always going to push the limits of what’s acceptable, but you have to respect the fact that you’re in a public space.’’
Administrators say dances are an important part of school social life, and most are reluctant to cancel them....
The dances I went to in school way back when pretty much sucked, and I did not do much dancing. Never got to bump-and-grind like today, though.
--more--"
I know it's only rock-and-roll, but I like it.
Just reading the Globe has become a grind these days, readers, and not the kid's kind.
