Many students choose to not attend school functioned dances because they can not bring outside dates.
The handbook says that no student is permitted to bring an outside date to any of the dances, except for Prom. This ostracizes many students who have significant others at other school or whom have graduated the year before; they are left with the option to go by themselves, stay home, or attend another school’s dance.
“I didn’t go to my senior Homecoming this year because I was unable to bring my boyfriend as my date,” senior Savanna Renner said. “I didn’t want to be the odd one out by being the only one in my friend group without a date.”
Ottawa, Olathe South, Olathe Northwest, Olathe East and Wellsville are all examples of local schools that allow students to bring outside dates who are under the age of 21.
The administration might argue that bringing outside dates would be overcrowding but only about 1/3rd of students on average from the school attend the dances. Therefore, the school had planned to accommodate for the hundreds of students who did not show and would have space to accompany the few outsiders without it being problematic.
If a school like Olathe South–which occupies 2,200 students and has a smaller campus–can bring dates, there is no reason that Gardner should not be eligible to also. All of these schools, like ours, have their dances held at their own school (with the exception of Prom).
The school is losing money because students are choosing to attend other schools dances because of the restrictions set into place here.
If the option to bring dates was provided more students would be in attendance. This ultimately means more money coming in and a better turn out for the StuCo members who spent hours planning and decorating the commons.
A simple system could be set into place to still keep track of who attends the dances. At Prom, if students want to bring dates who go to other schools or who have graduated, they pick up a form in the office that asks for their guests basic information. After it is turned back in, the administrations approves or disapproves this persons attendance. This system could easily be put into place for other dances.
Allowing students to bring outside dates would encourage many more students to attend. The current restrictions ostracize many individuals who would attend the dance if they could bring a date.
“We won’t have dances after high school so spending it with the person you choose makes the night more magical and fun,” senior Abbey Bilhimer said.