By Ryan O’Connor
Staff Writer

Students who participated in the annual Homecoming festivities at Hopkinton Middle/High School experienced an evolution in dance ­ the face-to-face variety.

Banning “grinding” and other types of “dirty dancing” has become a recent trend at New Hampshire middle and high schools and Hopkinton Principal Steve Chamberlin said school officials are just looking for the easiest solution to an ever-growing problem.

“Some schools have gone to no contact or slow dances only, but we didn’t want to do that,” Chamberlin said. “Our goal is to improve the climate and culture of dances and make them increasingly appropriate, while still allowing students to have fun.

“At first we didn’t really know what to do, but then decided that face-to-face is easily enforceable and easily obtainable,” he said.

Along with sending letters home to parents, Chamberlin met with students several days prior to the semester’s first dance to explain the reasons for the changes.

“We just wanted to inform parents that we are going to require students to dance face-to-face and hopefully that will eliminate the pelvis-to-backside dancing and some of that kind of stuff that’s been going on,” said Chamberlin. “Last year, it got pretty close to over-the-top, but we’ve found it’s difficult to change regulations during the school year. So, we are just getting the kids and parents on board before there are any issues this year.”

Following the Sept. 30 dance, students from Hopkinton gave the rule change mixed reviews.

“I’m pretty neutral toward it,” said Will Merrow, Hopkinton Student Council president. “I don’t really care a whole lot either way, but I think it’s unfortunate that there wasn’t any student input involved in the decision.”

Kate Scheffey, student representative to the school board, said there has been a lot of griping among students, but no challenge to authority. In fact, she said, students have encouraged her to talk to the board about student reaction.

“I think it has kind of been blown out of proportion, but I agree with the notion that 50 years ago, people didn’t agree with the dancing either,” she said. “It’s just kids having fun. It’s not leading to anything and it’s nothing that inappropriate.”

Goffstown High School Principal Frank McBride said his school has not had to adjust its dance rules because no major issues with inappropriate dancing have surfaced.

“It hasn’t happened to the extent that other principals around the area are reporting,” he said. “Whenever you put three, four, five hundred kids together in one place isssues are going to come up every once in awhile, but overall our students have been very well behaved.”

McBride said there were no noteworthy problems at Goffstown’s Homecoming dance on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Salem Superintendent Michael Delahanty disagrees.

“When you talk about this conflict of ‘grinding,’ it’s not the same as Elvis gyrating his hips,” he said. “This is the actual physical demonstration of a sexual act, which isn’t appropriate of any public setting.”

Some students say the rules go beyond “grinding” though.

Senior Sarah Warner, who said she was one of the few kicked out of the Hopkinton Homecoming dance, claimed a friend picked her up so she could see over the crowd and she was asked to leave because chaperones thought it was inappropriate.

“It wasn’t a hard rule to enforce, but I don’t think it was really necessary,” said Warner. “We all know it’s school grounds and we know what people want to see and what they don’t.”

Still, Hopkinton officials aren’t the only ones who are making changes.

Concord, for instance, had more than 150 students walk out of a Sept. 18 dance after officials repeatedly asked several to improve their behavior.

Now, the school is threatening to cancel the rest of its dances unless students comply with rules of proper conduct.

Not all schools have to make drastic changes, however.

According to headmaster Michael Reardon of Pembroke Academy, which educates students from Allenstown, Chichester, Deerfield, Epsom and Pembroke, the institution does not have a written policy about dances, but rather an institutional framework and attitude about what is appropriate in school.

“The whole issue here is a failure of kids or sometimes community members and even faculty members, to discern what we’re talking about here is school,” Reardon said. “It’s not the beach. It’s not the mall and it’s not their bedroom. It’s school and part of what we need to make kids aware of is there are different expectations and norms depending on where you are. At the very least, we want to make sure we counteract negative stuff they are exposed to elsewhere in the community.”

Reardon said Pembroke hosted its Homecoming dance Friday, Sept. 29, and only three students had to be spoken to about appropriate attire or behavior.

“It’s just kids being kids. They are always going to push the envelope and try to see what they can get away with,” he said. “It’s really our obligation and duty to make sure when they are within these four walls students understand what is appropriate and what isn’t.”