Utah teen urges town council to allow school dances amid pandemic

A Utah teen is calling on her school district to ease pandemic-era restrictions on school activities in an effort to restore a tradition held sacred by many young people: school dances. 

Taylorsville High School student Caitlin Bone addressed the Granite School District’s board at a Tuesday meeting, calling on members to reinstate dances, along with safety measures to ensure high school students can safely experience the tradition. 

“This is something that’s important to me and it’s important to my friends. You don’t get this time in your life back,” Bone said at the meeting, according to Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News. “Even while your school years are a sliver compared to the life ahead of you, you don’t get them back.” 

In her remarks, which the local outlet noted bore a similarity to the popular 1984 film “Footloose,” Bone added, “Assemblies, dances and after-school clubs are the most memorable parts of high school and I don’t believe we should stop having them, especially now when kids are being shut out from the world and being kept far away from their friends.” 

Unlike the film, in which the fictional Ren McCormack played by Kevin Bacon is fighting to end his small town’s ban on dancing, Bone is petitioning her district to lift the restrictions on school dances, arguing the district now has the capacity to test students for COVID-19 ahead of the event. 

Granite School District has used a “test to stay” protocol as an alternative to moving completely to online learning, in which students who test negative are able to remain in school while those who test positive must remain at home. 

Bone, who suggested Tuesday that attendance at the dance could be staggered to ensure it does not become overcrowded, added that dances “make going to school fun.” 

“It would be incredibly disappointing to graduate and never have gotten a homecoming. There are ways we can have one safely and I think we should still have extracurriculars,” she said, according to Deseret News. 

According to the news outlet, Granite School District Superintendent Martin Bates told staff Tuesday to discuss with Bone current ongoing discussions with county health officials on whether activities such as school dances will be possible amid the pandemic. 

The appeal from the teen come as the pandemic has forced disruptions to schools and classrooms across the U.S. Some states require that schools operate completely online, while other areas have allowed schools to maintain a hybrid of remote and in-person learning.

As of Wednesday, the Utah Department of Health has recorded approximately 350,000 coronavirus infections, with 13,648 hospitalizations and nearly 1,700 fatalities as a result of the virus.