Monday, October 20, 2014 by Skyler Stanford
It seems that if you went up to a random student at Saratoga Springs High School and asked them if they were going to the homecoming dance their response would most likely be no. Why is this? While many students still attend the dance, others may gladly give you a list of reasons why they don’t attend.
“Tickets are twelve dollars and you still have to pay for food,” said Hailey Burnside, a sophomore.
Juniors Reece Napier and Varia Drabkin agreed with that. More complaints about the dance included: Little to no decorations, small playlists, poor song choices, even the fact that there is a breathalyzer test at the door made students feel uncomfortable and uneager to attend homecoming according to senior Jermaine Owens.
Many students also offered suggestions on how the dance can be improved. Kate Dennett, a junior. said that “themed dances” would make the homecoming dance experience more enjoyable. For example, “Girls ask Guys,” where female students would ask their male classmates to accompany them to dance, would be a simple way to get more people talking about the dance.
Also, the fact that the homecoming dance is treated like a fundraiser shows in the experience. As an alternative, Napier suggested selling more things at the DECA store and having it available more often as well as having other small fundraisers. That way students can get easily excited about raising money and also it gives an opportunity for the price to be lowered on the entry to the dance.
Despite all this criticism, some students like Natalie Gerardi, a 10th grader, were very out spoken about the fact that they still enjoy the dances. “It was fun to dance and hang out with my friends, something that I don’t get to do often,” said Gerardi.
The homecoming dance should be something students can look forward to and not just a fundraiser. Kate Dennett said it best: “You only get four homecomings”… so why not try to make them as memorable as possible.