The long-time Air Academy High School (AAHS) tradition of holding a MORP dance has been put on the chopping block this school year. The student council has been debating whether or not to cancel this all-inclusive dance due to lack of participation in the past. If students do not participate in more school-sponsored activities, such as MORP, they could be removed.
The long-established MORP dance is not an acronym despite popular misconception. MORP is simply prom spelled backwards- which reflects how MORP is like a flipped version of prom.
Prom is a dance that typically caters to upperclassmen only and follows a formal dress code. MORP on the other hand, features informal attire and invites all grade levels to participate. So why would student council be pushed to get rid of such a unique event?
MORP “is usually one of the least popular events we put on” and “it’s generally only something that underclassmen go to and it has almost no lure for older students,” junior, secretary of dance, David (Wesley) Carter explained.
It is disappointing that MORP would not be more popular amongst all students. At times, older grade levels do not display the same amount of participation in school events as underclassmen. Upperclassmen only have so much more time left of their high school years and should be attending every event that they can.
“Personally, I wish that we would still do it. I feel like having another dance that underclassmen are allowed to go to is a lot more fair to them. Especially seeing as this year, all there was was the glow dance and homecoming,” Carter emphasized.
Having enjoyable opportunities for every student, freshmen to senior, impacts the amount of school spirit throughout grade levels. As of now, there are not any other underclassmen-inclusive dances planned after this fall season. However if MORP were to happen this year, there would be a fresh spring time dance for students in the lower grade levels to attend.
“Student council is probably only gonna do prom” but “technically MORP hasn’t been 100% canceled yet- we’re voting on it now. But after the attendance of the last dance, I would say that that would be something we would vote to move forward with,” student council supervizor, Mrs. Montoya shared.
The recent glow dance only had about 75 students in attendance, which is approximately a sixteenth of the number of students enrolled in AAHS. The low attendance rate of the glow dance is similar to that of past years of MORP. With little students attending, there is not much insentive for the student council to continue to put on these events.
“We delayed the vote, we’re pushing out a survey to the student body asking what they want and then we’ll make a decision after that,” junior, junior class vice president, Darren Butterfield remarked.
With this development, students have the ability to bring back MORP this school year. Maybe a throwback to the tradition of MORP and why the school has it is just the motivation students need. Keeping the MORP tradition alive could remind students about the fun of dances.
