Last Saturday, February 9, the fifth and sixth forms attended the annual First Hurrah dance: a decades-old tradition marking approximately 100 days until graduation and the beginning of the transformation of the juniors into the School’s oldest students. Not all students, however, showed the event the respect that it is intended to represent. Groups of students were witnessed attempting to sneak into the dance without paying for a ticket, while others completely disregarded the special dress code for such formal events, instead wearing casual attire.
Ms. Alex Long, Assistant Director of the Student Activities Center, said, “At the entrance, I saw multiple kids trying to sneak by when there was a mass of people trying to purchase tickets, or if we had issues with the scanners. I had to make sure that they went back to the front to work that through.”
Mr. Jim Yanelli, Director of the Student Activities Center, added, “That was my experience at the side door, as well. It was clear that kids had phoned people inside the dance to get them to open the door. Lots of kids, at least 20 or 30, came through that door.”
Ms. Long said that it was the first year that she noticed such a large number of students trying to duck payment. “I was surprised by how many kids were trying to do that,” she said.
Mr. Yanelli and Ms. Long were confounded by the issue, wondering if attempts to bypass the ticket line were due to genuine financial issues. “It’s awfully hard to predict; I suppose there could be lots of possibilities. It’s unusual that so many kids opted to try to get in without paying this year, when Beyond the Classroom funds are available, and all kinds of other mechanisms are available for kids to find funding.” Last year, tickets were fifteen dollars at the door, compared to this year’s twelve. “We have tried to do what we can year after year to lower the cost… We also actually put out the details about the dance weeks before so that kids would have the chance to get funds or do what they needed to do to budget for the ticket.”
Mr. Yanelli said, “It’s just disappointing that culturally, it seems acceptable. What I think students don’t realize is the overall cost of the event. It’s much much more than the sum total of ticket sales. This was about a $7,000 event. Ticket sales garnered probably half of that amount. So the School is already spending a lot of money to have what I think has historically been an important tradition for the School,” said Mr. Yanelli.
He went on, “I think individuals tamper with the tradition by opting to dress inappropriately. Rarely at school are you asked to dress for an event in a special way, and this is one of them. It’s unfortunate that it starts to feel like a Saturday night dance in St. John. We could save ourselves a whole lot of time, energy, and money by just having a dance for the fifth and sixth form in St. John and calling it the First Hurrah.”
In addition, at this year’s First Hurrah, Mr. Yanelli and Ms. Long noticed a higher-than-usual number of people breaking the dress code expectations. “Loads of people in sweats and jeans, and it was a significant number of people. This year, it seemed to be a much larger number of kids who opted to not dress up for the event. I felt badly for the kids who did dress up, because I think it kind of compromised the tone of the evening and the significance of the event,” said Mr. Yanelli.
Fifth-former Katherine Lima ’20, who attended the dance, noted that she saw two fourth-formers who had evidently snuck into the event. “I also saw someone in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Personally, it didn’t offend me that much. I get why people would be mad, though. It’s annoying.”
Laila Hawkins ’19, a sixth-former who also attended the dance, explained the thinking of some of her friends who had broken the dress code. “The two people that I know, they didn’t think they were going to come, but they ended up coming,” she said. “Then they just didn’t have anything to wear. But it still kind of bummed me out a little bit, because it’s supposed to be this cute dance, and we’re supposed to dress up.”
It was difficult for the community to comprehend the actions of some of their peers. Lima’s guess at the students’ thinking came down to “maybe for attention, maybe because they don’t care.” Ms. Long said, “I think it’s hard to determine what is going on in a teenager’s head.” Mr. Yanelli added, “It just strikes me as strange.”
