First Dance

The Students' Council hosted its first school dance of the year last Thursday night. Once again Northwestern's dance was a great success. The council hired a local, and very well known disc jockey known as "JJ the DJ" who seemed to know exactly how to get everyone in the mood to dance and have fun. The positive energy of over two hundred young people dancing and singing to their favourite songs is something that everyone should get the chance to experience.

A great deal of planning goes into every dance as each year's students' council tries to ensure that they give the students what they want. Of course, kids being kids, only a small percentage of the students buy tickets to the dance before the last minute and so the students' council members are always somewhat stressed as they worry about whether the dance will be a success (and will break even). Mr. Wybrow is the council's advisor and he too does a great deal of work to get ready for the dances. Mr. Wybrow also arranges for other staff members to attend the dances as chaperones and ensures that they know how much the students appreciate that the teachers help with the dances.

One question that has come up over the last few years is over our use of breathalyzers at the dances. Unfortunately, this has become a necessary precaution. We advertise the fact that every student entering the dance will be breathalized and so there's no guesswork about who should or should not be considered a risk. The purpose of the breathalyzers is to discourage students from drinking prior to attending our events and I'm always happy to see students having so much fun without the benefit of alcohol. It's also fair to say that our use of these breathalyzers takes pressure off some of our more junior students. The choice is clear, if you want to attend a dance, you can't be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and so students who are put in the position of having to respond to an invitation to drink can say no without worrying about how this will affect their friendships. The intent of our use of these breathalyzers is not to "catch" students, but to deter students from making poor choices.

Whether students in attendance at our dances are from our school or from one of our neighbouring schools, the same rules of conduct apply. By cooperating with each other, the principals ensure that students who are not part of our own student body know that they must respect our building and our student body just like they would their own.

I'm proud of our students' council for all of the work they put into events like dances and proud of the leadership they exhibit. Secondary school students are often judged by the behaviour of a few students who make bad choices. A night like last Thursday gives a much more accurate picture of today's young people.