Cape Breton school board bans dances for students, sparks an online petition

The school board on Cape Breton Island has banned dances in 15 schools across the region affecting about 3,000 students.

It’s a decision that has prompted many people to begin an online petition asking the board to lift the ban, CTV News reports.

“With so little for kids to do in our community, it is a shame to take away what little they do have,” Stephanie White, a parent who started the online petition, told CBC News. “It’s great for them to socialize. Not all kids are involved in sports.”

White explains in the petition that when she contacted the school board to inquire about their decision, the programs officer told her that “dances for middles schools were inappropriate and that all schools in Canada were following this rule now.”

The decision to ban school dances for grades six to eight was made after an Ohio expert on middle school curriculum, Dru Tomlin, visited Cape Breton earlier this year and made the recommendation, according to CBC News.

Donnie Holland, the acting co-ordinator of Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board told Toronto Star that school officials believed that there were better ways to create a positive school environment “that are more age-appropriate.”

“It’s not so much that we’re saying dances are evil,” Holland told the Toronto Star. “We’re just saying that we’re trying a new philosophy with middle school, so let’s try some new approaches to building school spirit.”

Not everyone thinks the school board’s new approach is a positive one.

The online petition called Let the Kids Dance has already received more than 1,700 signatures.

Holland told CBC News that he’s “not convinced” that school board administrators will change their minds about the ban following the petition.

“It’s not a value judgement. We’re looking at activities that will appeal to a wider range of students and are more developmentally appropriate than having our Grade 6s, who can be 10 and 11 years old, going to school dances,” Holland told CBC News.

White, on the other hand, believes that “dances are always a fun, social place for kids to get together and be normal kids.”