BSM had their first full-school dance in over two years and some say it was a disaster. The administration and student council were assigned to plan Homecoming, and were not fully prepared for the dance’s return.

The homecoming dance consisted of other activities around the school including ping-pong, a variety of card and board games in the library, a bonfire outside the main entrance and a movie in the theater. Math teacher John Groess, who was a chaperone at the dance along with the other math and religion teachers, thought the dance could’ve had more diversions for students. “I think, from an activities perspective, we could have had more activities for the students to do rather than just a dance if we bring in that many people. Having options to keep you all busy, I think is good,” Groess said.

Student council had planned to have a COVID safe dance this year, outside in the parking lot, but due to the inconsistent weather the dance was moved inside of the Haben gym. “The original plan was to have the dance outside, which would have allowed for the Haben to not be used. We had to use the Haben however and the heat and humidity of the Haben was a problem,” Assistant Principal Matthew Weingartz said.

Students created a mosh pit, which occurs every homecoming, but this year it got out of hand. Students were getting trampled and shoved, and at one point a freshman student was being jumped on by other students and had to be pulled out by an administrator. Two students were crowd surfed and dropped by their peers just moments after being hoisted up. Ice cream sandwiches were thrown around–at the ceiling, at other students, and into the mosh pit. “I think the biggest issue was probably safety. Safety, and then respect for the fact that if you make a big mess, adults have to clean it up…and that’s not cool,” Groess said.

Students were kicked out of the gym due to their poor behavior and waited outside until an administrator told them they could come back. Cami Dahlstrom, Assistant Principal, attempted to calm things down by going into the middle of the mosh pit to separate people. Eventually the teachers decided to turn on the lights, turn off the music and send all the students outside. “We had issues with student safety on the dance floor. There was a mess of ice cream that needed to be cleaned up so that students would not slip. Students were not listening to chaperones to stop so that we could address that issue, and the lights had to go on and clear the space so that we could ensure safety of all students,” Weingartz said.

Although the dance was scheduled from 7 p.m to 10 p.m, students were allowed to leave starting at 9:30 p.m. However, some students were getting impatient waiting for teachers to clean up the mess, so many students decided to bolt to their cars and rush out of the parking lot. Teachers attempted to keep cars organized while exiting the parking lot, but cars were screeching, driving over the speed limit and ignoring students crossing the street. “And then also, when [students] were leaving, they could have left in a much more respectful manner,” Groess said.

Both students and faculty had said that the dance didn’t go as planned. Half of the students there had never been to a homecoming dance because of COVID, so they didn’t know what the expectations were. “I think it was probably just the perfect storm of it was the first dance in two years…so we didn’t know what was expected,” Groess said.