by Conor Amrien and Mairin Quillen

Homecoming. Winter Formal. Sadie Hawkins. Junior Prom. Many high schools around the country hold several dances throughout the year, but at Brookline, the only dances a student can attend are Junior Semi-formal and Senior Prom.

Dean of Students Scott Butchart said that while dances are great for student bonding, a lot of preparation must go into planning them.

“We of course are delighted to offer the Junior Semi and the Senior Prom, which are classic, iconic experiences for kids,” Butchart said. “It’s important to us that everybody have a fun and safe time, so we offer what we see as the appropriate degree of safe transport by bus and supervision.”

According to Dean of Students Anthony Meyer, the administration is not opposed to offering more dances, but in the past there have been issues regarding student behavior.

“I love the school dances,” Meyer said. “In general, they seem incredibly positive. I think there used to be more problems with some students drinking, but I think since we’ve moved to providing transportation, I think it has evened the playing field and has made our event safer and, in some ways, more fun.”

Butchart said that dances are difficult to organize and require a lot of preparation. Preparation includes getting the venue set up, finding the right DJ, managing expenses and finding enough chaperones.

“The last few dances other than the Junior Semi and the Senior Prom didn’t go well in terms of student behavior,” Butchart said. “It became clear afterwards that between student behavior and adult reaction to that behavior that we’d be hard pressed to find enough chaperones to create a safe environment. So we have not gone down that route for a few years.”

Junior Samantha Higgins said that having so few dances creates pressure for each one to be perfect.

“Having only two dances makes it really stressful,” Higgins said. “I think there are standards that you need a date, you need the perfect dress, all that. If there were more social things you could bond with more people.”

According to Headmaster Deborah Holman, before her arrival at BHS in 2012, the Newton schools did not have very many dances either.

“They’ve thinned out over the last decade. Unfortunately they got out of hand because students came under the influence too many times,” Holman said. “So then it became what we thought to be dangerous. From my understanding I believe the same sort of decision and judgement happened here, that there was concern about safety.”

Junior Annika McGraw, who attends Newton South High School, said the school hosts only three dances in total.

“I think it’d be nice if we were organized enough to have more dances, but I also think that each grade only has one event because people talk about them more and get so much more excited to go,” McGraw said. “It also helps with fundraising because the more we fundraise, the cheaper tickets are to those events, and since everyone wants to go, everyone pays attention to bake sales and apparel. It helps the quality, too, since we have so much time to focus on that one event, they’re usually very well planned.”

On February 27, the Brookline Teen Center sponsored and hosted a “Freshman Formal” for freshman students of the high school, one of the few other school dances to take place in recent times.

According to executive director of the Teen Center Matt Cooney, the idea for the “Freshman Formal” came from two freshmen on the Teen Center’s board of directors who joined this year. The dance was the first event completely orchestrated by teens with a budget provided by the Teen Center, Cooney said.

“They were talking about new ideas and they said, ‘Hey, you have the RAFT dances in middle school, and then when you’re in high school there’s nothing until Junior Semi, and then there’s Prom. And so they thought it would be great to have some sort of event that would bring teens together, particularly since freshman year is the first year where kids are mixed from different elementary schools’,” Cooney said. “They thought it would be a good idea, and it would be really popular. The whole board agreed, and they started planning it. It took probably almost two months.”

Cooney said the Teen Center can plan events on the same level as the high school, and hopes to continue hosting events in the future.

“We have more flexibility and we can do things in a shorter time frame. I think the high school is an amazing place, but I think there are things that the high school can’t provide that we can make happen here,” Cooney said. “There’s not a lot of people to ask, it’s me and my assistant Jen. And then we have a teen board of directors who a lot of the ideas are vetted for, to make sure everything is in line with our mission.”

In terms of adding more school dances, Holman said despite her concerns, she is open to dialogue.

“My answer to that would be that I’m always willing to continue the conversation,” she said.

Conor Amrien and Mairin Quillen can be contacted at [email protected]