PATCH POLL ENCORE: Valley Bans Grinding at School Dances

After informally discussing it since fall, West Des Moines Community Schools are banning grinding, a sexually explicit type of dance, beginning with the Valley High Schoo winter formal later this monh.

Should West Des Moines Community Schools ban grinding? Take our poll. Talk about the issue in comments.

In an email to parents Tuesday outlining expectations for the Jan. 28 winter formal, Valley Principal Jim Mollison said a no-grinding policy will be instituted.

According to the email: “Students should face their dancing partners, and any dancing that involves groping, grinding, or public displays of affection will result in those students being asked to leave the dance.”

In a mock election last month, Valley students overwhemingly rejected the idea of such a ban. Only 280 students said they would continue to attend school dances if grinding were banned, compared with 818 who said they would boycott the activities if dance were prohibited

Assistant Principal David Maxwell used the mock election to have a candid conversation with students about the impression they leave with others when they participate in suggestive bahavior such as grinding.

Popular culture greatly influences how students view what’s right and what’s wrong, Maxwell told Patch last month. And in the minds of school officials, who have informally discussed a no-grinding policy among the administrative team and a committee of parents and teachers, sexually suggestive dances are wrong.

“Unless you’ve witnessed it, you don’t understand what grinding means,” he said. “The line of propriety of what we think is culturally acceptable continues to move."

Grinding has been an issues students, parents and school leaders have grappled with around the metro in the past year. It first came up in Johnston last school year, then an Urbandale parent complained about the dance moves at this fall's homecoming dance.