This high school isn’t having a homecoming this year, because of dirty dancing

Nobody puts Baby in the corner… well, except for Gorham High School in New Hampshire, which just cancelled this year’s homecoming dance due to the threat of, um, dirty dancing.

As Yahoo Parenting reports, last year the school’s principal Chris Record outlawed grinding at a school dance, which prompted a mass walkout. Two-thirds of the 350 students attending the dance left early because of the enforced dancing rules. The school did not believe that students would attend dances if they could not dirty dance, and so dances were canceled for the rest of the year and this year Gorham High School will only hold one dance, prom (because heaven help the school that cancels prom).

“Wait, some guy is outlawing dancing and the kids are protesting, wait, young people are being punished for dirty dancing, this is just Footloose meets Dirty Dancing,” you’re probably thinking. And you’re right, this story really should have been a movie from 30 years ago that has since become a sleepover staple. But before you go thinking that Principal Record is basically just Jerry Orbach/John Lithgow Fun Police hybrid, know that Record’s reasons for canceling the dances were more about economics than moral outrage.

Record explained in a letter to the parents that the reasons dances had been slashed this year was because “the senior class officers thought seniors would boycott any dance that was held and therefore, the hosting organization would not raise sufficient funds.” He also noted that the class officers “did not want to deal with the hassle and headaches that dances had become.”

So, instead of having a homecoming dance this year, the school is sponsoring a homecoming bonfire, but as the Portland Press Herald reports, “Gorham High students interviewed Tuesday said they either weren’t planning on going to the bonfire or hadn’t decided, and would probably go to other parties or hang out with friends instead.”

There are still students who are confused re: why the dances had to be canceled at all.

“If there’s people grinding, kick them out. Don’t ban the whole thing,” junior Kiara Sweet told the Herald.

As Record explained to Yahoo Parenting, he’s not trying to be the bad guy, he’s trying to look out for the well-being of his students.

“I think it’s unfortunate that kids don’t know how to dance and have fun in ways other than grinding. And while in some ways the school is seen as ‘taking this away from us,’ what we’re really trying to do is just keep kids safe.”

So Footloose, so Dirty Dancing, we need to take a time machine back to 1985 and let John Hughes and Molly Ringwald take a crack at this sucker.

Related:

This school invited Tom Hanks to their homecoming and he said YES

Girl loses bet with bestie, now must dress up like a minion for homecoming

Image via Great American Films Limited Partnership