Beware the fun-wreckers

I hope you aren't thinking that final exams are the source of all that mounting anxiety among the teens in your household. Because pre-exam jitters are nothing compared to the stress that goes hand-in-hand with high school's other spring ritual. We're talking about Prom. Or as we used to call it, "the formal."

While Canadians aren't quite as carried away yet as their American counterparts when it comes to this rite of passage, just take a look at all the rules that the poor kids in Arizona have to put up with. Parent contracts, alcohol checks, ID at the door, dress codes and full pedigrees of guests who don't attend that particular school. Imagine the indignity. Especially after they've forked over their part-time job earnings for expensive tickets, fancy dresses a la Reese and Scarlet, and limos to schlepp them there and back.

There are even restrictions on how they dance. On how they DANCE? Yep. Kids these days. They bump and grind. Freak and gyrate. Nut and butt. A form of entertainment that prudish chaperones refer to as "vertical sex." Though I can't imagine how easy any of this is when you're wearing skin-tight satin or a cummerbund.

According to this eye-opening Star story, dance restrictions are a trend happening across the GTA too, where teachers have been known to poke sticks at offending twosomes who are enjoying themselves a little too much on the dance floor. I'm not kidding.

All I can say is if the grownups don't lighten up, kids may just decide to skip the Proms and school dances. Who needs the hassle, when you can still play dressup and go to the before and after parties?

Comments

[Joyce Grant]

In our town, prom attendance was way down, mainly because the kids were charged $20 to go. Yet, they all participated in the after prom parties, had a fun evening, and avoided all the prom expenses.

[Mick Knoxville]

At our public school (JK-8) a Muslim complained that dancing was against her religion and wanted the name "dance-a-thon" changed. So the Principal changed the dance to "move-a-thon" to appease this person's beliefs. The woman and her kids didn't even show up for the dance. Makes me suspicious of her motives.