Dances at JC have always been long awaited and highly enjoyed events.  The Back to School dance is no exception and is particularly loved by students for its questionable attire and even more questionable dance moves.

Traditionally the policy is that one can only attend a dance at night if you attend school that day.  But what happens when you don’t have classes?  Is it suddenly okay for the administration to decide you still have to go to school in order to attend the fun later that night?  Although sitting through four hours of lengthy assemblies and Mass is not an academic requirement, it is required in order to attend one of the most awaited and attended events of the year—not exactly logical or fair in my book.

Since the administration has decided to crack down on potential assembly-filled-Friday skippers, students are left with a decision to make: Is the dance really worth it?  Some may even wonder if the administration will even have a way of knowing if they attended the pointless school day or not.  If that is the case, I cannot say that I’m a proponent of this sort of strict policy enforcement.

While skipping school may not exactly be the best thing to endorse, in this case, it certainly isn’t going to kill anyone to just take a chill pill for once and let students still attend the dance.  Since when does the administration use special school events as a way to bargain with the students?

Ultimately, a student choosing to skip a day lacking any academics is his or her personal choice, and it is not appropriate to use something that is a known want in order to get them to reconsider this.  Is this incentive, as proponents of the action will try to call it, or just plain shameless bargaining?  Something tells me the students will more than decide.

Ashley Snyder can be reached for comment at [email protected].