What would teen life be like without the senior prom in the old school gym? Ask any kid who has grown up in Purdy, a town of about 1,000 in southwestern Missouri where there has never, as far back as anyone can remember, been a school-sponsored dance.
“Well, it may seem out of step,” said Richard Place, superintendent of Purdy schools, “but this is a conservative town. We’re in the Bible belt, and that’s the way it is down here.”
The anti-dancing policy comes before the local school board annually, and last month, at one of the best-attended board meetings in recent months, the board voted once again to maintain the ban.
The Rev. Ted Davis, a local Baptist minister, told board members that dances open another avenue for drug use, alcohol consumption, and illicit sex. About 250 people at the meeting supported the ban, and about 50 came to oppose the policy, according to Mr. Place.
Not content with that decision, a small group of pro-dancing parents and students is sponsoring a rally this week. In hopes that life might imitate art, the group invited Kevin Bacon and Christopher Penn, the stars of the movie “Footloose,” to appear. (In the movie, which is set in a small, conservative town, a ban on dancing is lifted after a group of students protests.)
The two stars reportedly have declined the invitation.
Raleigh Johnson, a lawyer for the pro-dancing group, has written to the board, warning that if the members are basing their decision on a religious argument, the group may sue.
Mr. Place denied that the dancing dispute is a religious issue. The board members have informed him, he said, that the community does not feel it is the school’s job to sponsor dances.
The superintendent refused to express an opinion on the issue, although he did attend the closest thing to a school dance in Purdy: a “homecoming-type” dance, arranged and supervised by parents, at the local community center. Purdy’s 240 students in grades 7-12 often hold dances in the community center, which is 75 yards from the front door of the secondary school.
