"Dude! I'm totally grinding that girl from Biology class. Sweet!!!"
A public high school in Maine has banned ‘dirty dancing’ aka ‘grinding’ to the dismay of hormonally challenged students who are threatening to boycott this weekend’s homecoming dance.
Portland High School senior Felix Cobanovic told the Portland Press Herald that grinding is the “dance style of his generation” while classmate Grace Hanley, a junior, remarked, “Adults see it as a sexual thing, but it’s more of a social thing.”
Some students argue that despite adults’ beliefs that grinding has everything to do with simulating sex and nothing to do with dancing, junior Keelia Ryan admits things can get out of hand, but it’s nothing teenage girls can’t handle on their own, much less anything for their parents to worry about.
“The problem for some girls is when some random guy comes up behind them and starts grinding on them,” Ryan said. “But if you don’t want to dance with a boy, you just move away from him. You have to be assertive.”
Ahmed Ahmed, a senior, agrees with Ryan’s insistence that students should be allowed to handle situations that arise on the dance floor on their own, without adults interfering.
“It’s treating us like we’re children, and some of us are already 18,” Ahmed said. “Girls don’t have to dance with someone they don’t like. They can just say no. I was turned down five times at one dance. I just moved on and danced with a lot of other girls.”
Despite the pleas and threats from students, Principal Mike Johnson said he’s not going to budge on his anti-grinding policy that prohibits boys and girls from grinding their pelvises and crotches to the hottest beats, even if it’s the only way they know how to ‘dance.’
“I have 1,000 parents who love me and 1,000 students who are mad at me,” Johnson said. “They’re upset because they think I’m trying to ruin their dance, but I’m just trying to keep them safe and teach them how to act with responsibility and civility in a public place.”
Whose side are you on? The mean old principal who just doesn’t understand this generation’s groove or the misunderstood teenagers with raging hormones in need of dance lessons?
Go mean old principal!
Kids are just doing what comes naturally! The younger generatations have their own set of mores which are not necessarily accepted by the older generations. This is just a fact of life & there’s nothing wrong with it.
All part of growing up!
Yes. When I was a teen (and sex crazed and irresponsible) I thought getting “laid” was just part of growing up. Then I grew up. (Too bad you haven’t.)
Teen pregnancy and std’s are far more prevalent these days than when I was in school. But, then school boards and agenda oriented teachers weren’t trying to turn their students into perverts. It used to be that parents taught their children to be responsible, and tried to instill the value of virtue (keeping one’s self chaste until marriage.) Too many irresponsible and rebellious kids have grown up and, just want their own kids to be their “friend.” Not surprising that porn, domestic violence, and terms like, “my baby’s momma,” are so prevalent today.
Are you who just trying to be your irresponsible teen’s friend really doing them any favors?
Give a drunk another drink. If it kills him you can always justify yourself by saying, “He asked for it.” Right?
Mr. Johnson,
I have a question for you? Do you remember being a teenager? If so, I’m sure you remember how you felt when the administration of your high school was being “too strict about what “they thought” was appropriate. Additionally, As you have said, “Its their dance”, then let them have THEIR DANCE! My last comment: Do you really believe that its your responsibility to teach them how to “act with responsibility and civilly in a public place”?
Isn’t that was something that THEIR PARENTS should have taught them, NOT the public school system?
Ray
It’s a shame that a school administrator has to try to keep kids from working themselves into a sexual frenzy in public, because their parents are not doing their job of teaching their children things like morals, common decency, and decorum in their behavior at home.
Children are not inclined to learn good moral behavior and self control when it’s left up to them- it must be taught, and instilled, by responsible adults. (One could only pray such people were the children’s own parents.)
Apparently, parents are not doing their job, if their children think grinding their genitalia on each other is appropriate public behavior.
If you allow underage children to do these things, who will stop them when it’s the 5 or even 10 year olds? When is it not okay? What message are you sending to the kids of today? Its okay, as long as it isn’t with a grown-up? “But, dady, he was real nice, and didn’t do anything Johnny hasn’t done already.” Wake up!
Thank God someone is letting the kids know it isn’t right.
Really, this would not be an issue if we had a more privatized school system. If a private school chose to sponsor a dance, then those who are economically invested in the school (ie: those paying tuition, donors, etc) could decide what should and should not be allowed at the dance. If the final decision disallowed bumping and grinding, and there were enough unhappy customers, they could either leave the school or host a separate dance that did allow provocative dancing.
The only reason this is an issue is because public schools are funded with stolen – I mean, tax-payer dollars, and run by the mafia – I mean, the state. Since the state is entirely unfit to determine morality (as we have seen time and time again), perhaps we should consider whether it is fit to provide quality education, as well.
I am 60 years old and my parents thought it awful that we did the original dirty dancing. If you forbid it in the open they will find private places, without supervision, to do it. Then how far will it go. Government, including schools should butt out of trying to run our lives.
They should be able to grind n the dance floor. And then they should set up some beds off to the side,to finish up on, and smoking booths to smoke dope and a bar with beer and wine. No hard liquior. After all that would be dumb. They still under 21! They shouldn’t grow up to fast.
I am an anti-grinding teen. I will just say this: if you want to grind, grind.
If you grind in your own house, that is one thing. However, the school setting is never an appropriate place for any kind of sexually-suggestive dances, etc.
This is not a question of government intervention; I am a conservative with some extreme-right tendencies. A school is permitted to make its own rules whether it is a private institution or a government edubba. Grinding, again, is never appropriate in a school setting. A principal is a principal. The principal, not a congressional bill, runs the school. If a principal says, “No,” to anything in his school, it is a “no.” No questions asked. If you do not like the school so much that you do not believe the president of the school should be making a decision, leave the school.