Story Archive

(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)

Last year, a battle over grinding — a kind of dancing that can involve contact between a boy’s groin and a girl’s rear — divided Gorham, Maine, High School. Two-thirds of attending students walked out of a dance when they were reminded that grinding was forbidden, principal Chris Record said. Record called what followed “an uprising of sorts” that “disrupted” the school and caused a “difficult time for our school culture.” He said student officials canceled other dances last year, fearing boycotts and fund-raising failure, and were involved in deliberations on how to “improve” the “dance culture.” But now there will be no more dances at Gorham High except the prom. “It is by no means the students’ fault,” said Record, “but the dancing they have witnessed on MTV/VHS/movies involves primarily only sexually suggestive grinding.” (AC/WMTW Portland) ...Suggestive dancing! Student protests! VHS tapes! Can anyone guess the year?