The first dance of this year will be segregated by grade, with ninth graders in the Underwood Room and the rest of the school in Borden Gym, said Chris Capano, Student Activities Director.
“Starting school here as a new ninth grader is a huge change, and we’re trying to make that change less sudden and jarring…We thought we could have a dance where the ninth graders could meet each other and get to know each other as their ninth grade classmates,” Capano said.
The idea for a separate dance came up at the weekly Deans’ meeting on Monday morning that included Deans, advisors, Academic Skills Center counselors, Graham House counselors, Isham nurses, adult members of Student Activities, and other school officials. After consulting the Student Activities Board (SAB), Capano decided to change this week’s dance.
“I talked about it with the Student Activities Board last night [Tuesday], and no one seemed to think it was a horrible idea, so we thought we’d try it, and see how it goes,” Capano said.
The dance was not directly part of an effort to counter or solve “hook-up culture,” and discussion of the hook-up culture did not come up during the Monday meeting, but “might be a small part of it in the background,” said Capano.
“No one was ever like, ‘We have to save these kids from the older kids,’ it was like, ‘Let’s give them a chance to do something on a smaller scale,” Capano said.
