For decades and maybe even millennia, Windham High School dances have been a canvas for self-expression, bringing about the best experiences in, supposedly, the “best years of our lives.” There is another unintended purpose, however, for these social gatherings, which is to exhibit and exploit one’s attraction toward a member of the opposite sex, though sometimes in extremity.

Grinding, if you are unaware, is a word, by definition, explaining the action of two objects simply creating friction between each other, which is, basically, the action that produces this prohibited type of dance with the same name. It doesn’t take a high level of cognition to perceive what this dance is alluding to, and that’s very much the reason for school dances being outlawed last year.

But, is it really proper justice to react to this inappropriate style of dance by preventing any type of dance whatsoever? Though the school definitely has proper reasons and rights to subject us to it, personally, I would respond with a deliberate “NO.” A strong majority of my peers would say the same, which is why, in this 2011-2012 school year, dances will resurface. (With the school board’s strong optimism that we’ve matured enough over the summer to even spare a thought about “rubbing our bodies against each other.”)

But this time, there’s a catch. Upon entering the dance, (and this is just an idea the school has tossed around) one must sign a “contract,” arbitrarily selling their soul to the devil… or promising that they won’t grind, but I’m sure that’s just a formality.

Anyway, my opinion of this new rule requiring one’s “John Hancock” as a pledge to not grind, is that, though its intentions are morally impeccable, its execution isn’t exactly flawless. I believe that if a student upholds the immorality to grind in the first place, he (or she!) probably isn’t going to abide by an obligatory piece of paper.

Like many, I went to the recent homecoming dance. To the surprise of most, including myself, grinding was actually inhibited for the dance’s full three-hour progression, and, from what I perceived, students certainly utilized this freedom. Although it’s unlike me to have a fluctuating opinion during the construction of a single article, I found that, though I don’t totally agree with grinding and wouldn’t participate, I might have been a little too “uptight” while judging its severity. It’s simply a form of dance, and it certainly doesn’t come close to the publicly inappropriate images we see in movies nor is it as intimate as the couples we see locking lips (and tongues?) after school. For these reasons, I believe that we’re mature enough to see someone’s clothed groin come in contact with another person’s clothed backside.

The proposed restrictions on grinding were quite simple; hands must be kept off the person that you are coming in contact with. Quite an appalling alteration, I must say, from signing a paper promising that one will abstain from grinding at all. Also, everyone in attendance was, and will most likely be at the next dance, accessorized with two (very fashionable, by the way) bracelets. For your first offense, you have to remove a bracelet, and for your second, you’re forced to leave. To my knowledge, not a single student was ushered out of the event completely, but there were a few bracelets that scattered the open cafeteria’s floor. And supervision at the dance greatly sufficed due to the vast amount of parent and teacher volunteers.

In my opinion, even with the supposed malevolence of grinding, the homecoming dance was a success and even more importantly, it paved the way for dances to come. Maybe, to the satisfaction of parents, the school board will reconsider being more severe, but for now we’ll just have to be content with the “hands-off” rule and the bracelets, which go extremely well with semi-formal clothing.

Ian Donnelly is a student at Windham High School.