'Footloose High:' Manchester Students Decry Dance Battle Ban

Ren McCormick would be proud.

A ban on dancing that has students calling it “Footloose High” has Manchester Township School District officials trying to find a positive solution to a situation that started innocently but escalated into what officials said was a dangerous situation.

Students took to Twitter and Instagram, posting videos and tweeting about events at the high school on Friday, where dance battles -- where students challenge each other to show who has the best dance moves -- in the school led to the suspensions of six students.

“Footloose all over again, we dance if we want, you can’t tell us nothing!” tweeted one student, one of several tweets making reference to the 1984 movie that starred Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormick, the city boy who moves to a small town where dancing and rock music are banned for religious reasons.

Both students and administrators say the situation began innocently enough, with just a few students earlier in the week that grew as students began gathering to watch the performers.

“We were having students congregating in big groups having dance-offs that started to create an unsafe environment for students,” Manchester Principal Dennis Adams said in a letter to parents posted on the district’s website. “Although it started innocently, it escalated into a disturbance. This morning (Friday), another large group congregated, blocking the hallway for students trying to get to class and creating a disorderly and potentially unsafe situation.”

Adams said the school administration is looking into ”starting a dance club or a dance team to develop an appropriate venue (for students) to express their dance talents.”

Adams’ letter goes on to say that he made an announcement at the beginning of period 5/6 telling students that ”there was to be no more dancing in the building.”

The announcement had the opposite of the desired effect, according to students tweeting about the events and students who contacted the Patch.

“Dancing broke out everywhere,” wrote one student. “What he failed to explain was that the dance battles were very disruptive, having drawn a lot of attention and causing safety hazards in the halls between classes.”

School officials and security offcers “were running around the entire school trying to break up dance battles,” the freshman said, adding that students had been suspended as a result.

“One student was even suspended for asking the principal about the movie ‘Footloose,’ ” the student wrote, though that could not be confirmed. “Now anyone who even plays music is reprimanded and the physical education teachers wouldn’t even play music during class in fear of students dancing.”

Rumors going around the school and on Twitter said between 30 and 45 students had been punished, but Manchester Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway, who confirmed that students had been suspended, said the number was just six -- three for refusing to leave the area and three for videotaping the events and refusing to stop.

At least one of the students appears to be part of a group that goes by the name “White Boys With Attitude,” as the hashtag #FreeWBWA along with references to the dance battles and the movie “Footloose” popped up on Twitter after school let out for the day.

“Obviously, students are allowed to dance in appropriate venues, such as dances, proms, talent shows, and other suitable settings,” Adams wrote in the letter to parents. “However, the large scale dancing, when students are supposed to be proceeding to classes and learning is not permissible. In addition, the cafeteria is not an appropriate place for this large-crowd dancing because the environment is one with many students in one location and can quickly escalate.”

Students said police officers were called in to deal with the issue, but Adams said that was incorrect.

“Due to an unrelated incident, the police were called to the building because of a student in crisis. We wanted to clarify that this was not at all connected to the other events today,” Adams wrote.