In a meeting with Kick Off Mentors on Friday, January 13, Principal Dee Lancaster reflected on one of her very first impressions of Seaholm’s December dance.
“In one of my very first meetings with Mr. Piper, a person stood up and said ‘oh yeah, we all know that’s the slut dance,” Lancaster said.Junior and senior mentors laughed uncomfortably, and were quickly cut short.
“That’s not funny,” counselor Rebecca Rossen said. “That’s really degrading to women.”
Lancaster has been fighting to change the dynamics of Seaholm’s dances, specifically the December dance, known to many as “the slut dance”. She said she will be enforcing changes at this dance, both regarding dress code and dance style.
“We are going to be policing the dancing. It’s time to change the culture of these [dances],” she said. “I talked to Mr. Proctor at Groves and their rule is ‘face to face and leave some space’, and that’s basically what’s going to happen here.”
The dress code will also be strict.
“The goal is everyone wears white, and we are going to enforce jeans or leggings, I don’t want anybody coming in skirts,” she said. “I don’t want to mess with the dress code this time.”
Lancaster said, if dressed inappropriately, students won’t even be allowed through the door.
“If people come in [dressed] inappropriately, I’m just not going to let [them] in. I won’t even take the $10, I’m just going to stand at the door and tell people to go home, put something else on, and come back.”
The venue and time has also been changed from the cafeteria to the atrium by the pool, in hope that this change will help.
“The whole point is that students come straight from the basketball game, so they aren’t dressed inappropriately,” Student Congress Vice President Christy Wells said.
Lancaster hopes that the turnout for this dance will be large, despite the dance and dress code restrictions.
“We’ll put the DJ up above in the walkway above the pool, and that way we will have enough room,” she said. “I think it’s going to be very full.”
Student Congress member Jean Miller* disagrees with Lancaster’s approach to change the culture of Seaholm dances.
“This dance is going to turn into another Freeze,” she said. “The administration is going to see that the dress for these dances is not going to change simply by changing the name and venue of it.”
Lancaster said she understands that teenagers need freedom, but that school might not be the best place to show that.
“I want people to have fun. I’d rather have people here then out doing whatever. Anytime I can get you to a school thing, I think is great, but it’s school, it’s not the club,” she said. “If you want to do that somewhere else, fine, but here we are going to expect school rules to apply.”
Still, Lancaster wants every student to understand the line that is not to be crossed at these dances.
“Behavior at this dance is going to determine what that December dance looks like next year,” she said. “And if I have the same issues I had in December [at Glow], we’ll have Homecoming and Prom and that will be it.”
Lancaster further reiterated her point in an assembly on Tuesday, January 17.
She held up outfits that she deemed appropriate and inappropriate for Glow.
Glow is also a replacement for Sadies, in hope that it will raise more money for Prom.
“Sadies has not been well attended,” Lancaster said. “It’s not a moneymaker, and this is the last moneymaker for Prom. We need the cash [for Prom], and I think this will help a lot.”
Student Congress Co-President Kirstyn Shiner also looks forward to this replacement.
“It will be a fun alternative to Sadie’s and a casual dance, which will be a nice change,” she said. “Plus, I think it will go well because [the administration] is setting a dress code.”
Lancaster hopes that students will be able to follow the rules. If not, there will be consequences.
“If you want to push the limits, to see whether or not I’m serious, try, but I’m serious this time,” Lancaster said.
*name has been changed to protect the identity of our source
