Show DANCES demoralize SCHOOLS I 1 colorado Comm community watY oro a peculiar Condit condition lon superintendent of public instruction grace espy patton has rec received elved alet ter from an indignant citizen of meeker in which complaint to Is made that the order and decorum of the school la Is seriously threatened because the school board permits the desks to be torn tom up and the school used for a dancing academy says the denver times limes after describing the condition the school was in the writer says this was all the result of using the school house tor for a public dancing halt hall knowing that an orderly school could not be kept in this sort of building I 1 asked permission to arrange and fasten the desks this was given and I 1 labored tor for days saturdays to get this accomplished and now have a very tidy room the board of directors then decided so go I 1 was informed that the school building should not be used tor for any purpose except such as would not require the removal or disturbance of the furniture but now some upstart takes a notion that they must mu st have another dance in the schoolhouse and in spite of my earnest protest to the board seems to have secured their consent the county superintendent nor the board of directors have brov provided me with a copy of the school laws of colorado hence I 1 am unable to judge whether it is lawful or not to use a public building tor for dancing purposes but it seems to me that even it it is not contrary to the letter of the law it cetta certainly must be to the spirit of the law you well know that any public gathering in a district especially anything like a dance Is bound to draw off the minds and attention of many pupils from their school work thus demoralizing moral izing and antagonizing the work of the school it Is a common occurrence here for little girls of 12 to 14 years of df age to go to dances and dance the whole night you can caa well ender stand the damnable influence upon tender young girls and boys of such doings I 1 think too that when such a thing as a dance is held right in the schoolhouse the evil influence Is doubly great you will oblige me greatly by giving your decision or the law as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of using public buildings in this state tor for dancing I 1 do not know whether the desks will wil be torn from the floor or not for the dance tonight but if 11 such is done can the teacher be compelled by law to teach again before the school building is restored to the same orderly condition as that in which I 1 left it it must be remembered in considering this question that a public dance as conducted here is a public evil there has never been a dance held there but that empty liquor bottles have been found on the premises or right in the pupils desks please oblige me by a prompt reply to my questions |