Collier County school district postpones homecoming dances

Reporter: Rachel Cox-Rosen Writer: Jack Lowenstein
Published:
Credit: WINK News.

An annual highlight for many high school students in Southwest Florida has been postponed.

Collier County Public Schools is canceling the homecoming dance to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Homecoming week is close, but there won’t be any homecoming dances at CCPS schools after the school district postponed them all.

“Well, I think that it’s probably for the best,” said Cameron Holnberg, a sophomore at Naples High School.

“It makes sense with like the COVID numbers,” said Seamus Digiorno, a freshman at Naples High School.

But Sophia Nocera, a Naples High School senior, wondered why everything else is seemingly back to normal. There are no masks in classrooms or on buses, so she’s confused about why target homecoming dances have been targeted, so she started a petition.

“So the district could see that we were all very saddened and honestly almost mad about the news,” Nocera said.

“They keep having football games and volleyball games, which are like volleyball games inside with no regulations, and then, they won’t have the homecoming dance which is probably only a third of the student body that’s going to attend,” said Aidan Solomon, a junior at Naples High School.

“I’m scared that they’re just going to keep postponing it or just cancel it altogether,” said Mia Waleri, a senior at Naples High School.

Chad Oliver, the CCPS director of communication and community engagement, explained the school district’s reasoning.

“Through the conversations we’ve had with local medical professionals, the Department of Health-Collier, it was the unanimous decision that right now we’re holding on the dances from a health perspective,” Oliver said.

We asked CCPS why indoor lunches are allowed but not an indoor dance, and the school district said there are many more opportunities to spread out during lunchtime. It said homecoming would cram more than 1,000 students in one place for multiple hours.

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