Why Homecoming Was Canceled

Every year in schools around the country, the tradition of Homecoming is celebrated in the fall. Homecoming is built around a central event, usually a football game, and typically consists of the coronation of a King and Queen at the game, and a dance either after the game or the following day. Other variations of events held to celebrate the event also consist of parades and pep rallies.

It has been five or six years since the last time a Homecoming dance or coronation was held at Madison High School. Madison Dodger Online spoke with Vice Principal Connolly regarding why the dance had been cancelled in previous years. According to the Vice Principal, there had been problems with students showing up to the dance under the influence in the years previous to the start of his job at the school in 2008. In the 2008-2009 school year there was a dance, but the faculty worked to amp up the monitoring of kids entering the dance. The following year most students decided that they didn’t want to take the chance to come to the dance and simply stopped showing up, therefore the dance was cancelled.

Since then other events have come to take the place of the Homecoming Dance. The speedball and dodgeball tournaments are both Student Council sponsored events that have taken place since then. Mr. Connolly made it a point to mention that he, as well as the rest of the staff, are open to the possibility of a dance, as well as other student ideas.

Starting in last spring, the Student Council has been working on incorporating the tradition of Homecoming back into the school. They spent time on researching and planning the event, but unfortunately they were not able to get everything the way it needed to be in order to get their ideas approved. Mr. Connolly recognized the hard work of the Student Council saying that they provided a good framework for the event and that he hopes future members of the Student Council will continue their work and make Homecoming a reality.

In the end, Homecoming is meant to be a meaningful experience for the student body, not just an excuse to crown a king and queen.