The generations met and came to a compromise on what music will be played at Homewood-Flossmoor High School dances.
Students led a petition drive in December asking for greater leeway for disk jockeys selecting music for school dances, as well as permissible music for various school functions and airing on WHFH-FM, the student-run radio station.
They complained that the administration set such restrictive guidelines that dances weren’t fun because popular music couldn’t be played. Administrators said they set the guidelines after a disk jockey at a 2015 dance played the raunchy version of a song and students sang out every vulgar word.
After that incident, administrators set tough restrictions trying to keep music with vulgar language, sexual innuendo and comments related to criminal activity from being part of school functions.
During the holiday break administrators held several meetings with as many as 70 students participating. Under the compromise, music played on the radio between 6 and 10 p.m. would be acceptable for H-F functions. Those song versions are clean enough to meet Federal Communications Commission guidelines.
“We’re starting fresh,” said senior Shannon Dunne who asked the H-F school board at its December meeting to take action on the students’ request. With the new policy “everyone I’ve talked to, they’re happy,” she told board members at this week’s meeting.
Under the new policy, presented to the school board on Tuesday, students will have input on the playlist and work to respect administrators’ concerns about language. The playlist will be updated during the school year and will be a document accessible to students and staff.
The policy will take affect with the Turnabout Dance on Feb. 27.
Superintendent Von Mansfield said H-F now becomes one of the few high schools in the area to put its policy into writing. Alvin “AJ” Jones, executive president of the H-F Student Council, said that means both sides “are seeing eye to eye. It’s a good compromise. We don’t feel stifled.”
Mansfield gave special thanks to Dunne and Jones and fellow students Mia Schumann, Adriana Stephens and Christine Augustin who played major roles in developing the new policy.
With the experience behind her, Dunne admitted “it’s a scary thing” to stand up at a public meeting and question adults on a policy, but she felt it was important to give students a voice and prove that their opinions do matter.