Student Council worked for two years under the leadership of Social Committee Head Logan Davis to plan the Feb. 4. winter dance.
Officially called the Snow Ball, the formal followed the concept of MORP, which is an inversion of the word prom. A MORP is a semi-formal dance, and girls ask boys to accompany them. Unlike prom, students choose to minimize costs for the Snow Ball.
“My friends and I are all planning on going out to a cheap restaurant before just to hang out and get something to eat without spending a lot of money on it. I think it’s a really good idea because now it’s not just like Homecoming and Prom,” sophomore Maggie Nace said. Although girls are encouraged to ask boys to the dance, dates are not required.
Several Student Council dances have been cancelled for different reasons, including scheduling issues, new rules and low student participation rates. The decision to cancel all dances other than Homecoming and Prom was made during the 2009-2010 school year, and those dances were taken off the calendar for the 2010-2011 school year. The Back to School dance often fell on a date too close to Homecoming, which occurs the same day as the Homecoming football game, which is scheduled by the Lake Erie League. At some dances in past years, student behavior, such as inappropriate dancing, caused changes to ensure student health, safety and wellbeing. After rules were changed, dance ticket sales dropped, leading the administration to cancel dances, sometimes days before the event if ticket sales were poor.
“No dance has ever been cancelled for poor behavior,” Assistant Principal Eric Hutchinson said. However, dances have been cancelled due to low ticket sales resulting from rule changes.
“I think people might not want to go because they’re not trusting of the administration,” Davis said.
“I think the attendance has been low because of restrictions the administration places,” said junior Christina Harris. “A lot of students will refuse to go it they can’t do what they want.”
Despite the underage drinking that occurred at this year’s Homecoming dance, Hutchinson said the decision to approve the Snow Ball was based on the success of Homecoming.
Hutchinson hopes this dance will become an annual event. “We are working with
Student Council, and they really deserve a lot of credit,” he said.
“It would really be beneficial to the entire school if this became an annual thing. . . If this is a success then the next year’s council will be able to use the dance as a fundraiser, which would be a great help to their councils,” senior Claire Levin said.
“In order to have a winter dance in the future, we need to pull this off,” Davis said.
After attending the Back to School Dance her freshman year, Harris was even more excited to go to Homecoming. She planned to attend the Snow Ball with a group of friends.
She said, “I’m really glad people have decided to go to this dance, because hopefully more students will realize how fun these dances can be.”
A version of this article appeared in print on 8 February 2012, on page 3 of The Shakerite.
