I have been at this dance for over an hour and the music is starting to get irritating, as I hear the familiar pop songs that have been overplayed. I forgot to eat dinner earlier, and my stomach starts to grumble as I think of delicious individually wrapped Wendy’s hamburgers with a combo of medium fries and drink. A sense of relief passes over me as I tread up the stairs from the loud gym and into the quiet dance studio where I retrieve my jacket, but as I start to walk to the exit a parent stops me and says that students cannot leave until 9:30 p.m.

This new “rule” is not really a rule yet, but it is actually a procedure that the administration implemented during the Homecoming Dance for the first time. This procedure states that students can arrive at the dance up to an hour after it starts, and can only leave an hour before the end of the dance. But in-between these times, they are confined to the gym.

I don’t think this is right because students shouldn’t be forced to stay at a dance if they don’t want to. This dance procedure should definitely be thrown out for the rest of the dances this year so that studentscan leave a dancewhenever they want. The fact that this procedure is not even in the student handbook tells me that it has not yet been approved by the School Board and that the administration just felt like making it a procedure for dances.

According to Assistant Principal Anne Dolid, the new procedure was put into place because parents were concerned as to what their children do when they go to dances. This new time restriction prevents kids from arriving at the dance and not remaining for the entire duration of the event.

Nothing has gone wrong at any other dances previously when students left early so why did the administration implement this new procedure all of a sudden? The administration is responsible for the students, but shouldn’t trap kids at a school event with no escape until 9:30 p.m. Most students were not aware of the fact that they could actually leave if they had an administrator, like Ms. Dolid, call their parents for permission.

Some students felt that the new procedure was not beneficial. Sophomore Ryan Siu said he thinks the new procedure is ridiculous and that if kids want to leave they should have the right to.

Senior Lauren Remer agreed saying that trapping kids at a dance is unfair.

“Going to a dance is voluntary and it seems unfair to make students not be able to leave until a certain time. If we choose to go to a dance, we should be able to choose when to leave it too,” said senior Lauren Remer.

One thing that this new rule will accomplish is to deter students from going to dances because they are not able to leave early. Kids will still do whatever they want without supervision after 9:30 p.m. and the new rule is not going to do anything except give a false sense of assurance to the very small population of parents that constantly fear for their child’s safety in the city of Piedmont.

Contact Yianni Gougoumis at ygougoumis@tphnews.com