An article in Education Week says, “It looks like sex, but it’s dancing. It’s called freak dancing, and teenagers of all types are freaking at middle and high school events across the country. And though pairs of grinding pelvises filled the floor at a Valentine’s Day dance at a suburban Washington public high school, it might well have been the tamest freaking on record: The kids stayed dressed and on their feet. At other schools, blanched administrators say, a girl might be on all fours, with one boy’s pelvis pressed into her face and another’s pressed into her bottom. They see boys on their backs with girls spread-eagled over them; girls bent forward with boys’ hips thrust into their backsides. Students know it by different names in different towns: freaking, grinding, jacking, booty dancing, the nasty. They do it to hip-hop and rap.”
After hearing of more and more schools across the nation that are canceling dances, insisting on contracts, writing firm letters home to parents, etc., I am feeling more than a little sick at what our teens are doing at dances these days. As someone with fond memories of high school dances, and the “romance” and fun of acting grown up with a pretty formal gown, a corsage and a handsome date, I am grieved at what is happening at today’s middle and high school dances. And some teens are also pushing back. See what one Colorado teen wrote to her peers in this high school newspaper article.
So, I’m curious. Parents, ask your kids if their friends are doing this kind of dance. Is it true that “everybody’s doing it”? Is this the new normal? I’d love to hear what your kids are telling you.