MSD Students dance the night away at homecoming. Enjoying a night of music, food and drinks, these girls made it a memorable night.
MSD SGA holds annual Homecoming dance; ticket issues arise
The 2022 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Homecoming dance was an energetic beginning to the 2022-2023 school year, uniting all of MSD’s students together on the dance floor. Taking place at the Marriott Hotel in Fort Lauderdale from 7-11 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10 students enjoyed unlimited soft drinks, fun desserts and blasting music for an all-around fun time.
The dance required all students’ bags to be searched, tickets to be shown, and students and administration to show identification through their IDs or school IDs. Once being entered into the dance students found candy on tables, blue lightning cast across the room, a DJ, and plenty of snacks, desserts, and bottomless soft drinks for all.
Three students were found with illicit substances and some students were under the influence and were escorted out by security and/or given proper consequences. This is recorded in the current SESIR report of the school that went up in 3 recorded substance abuse incidents from students at homecoming.
“It was definitely an experience, I had fun, dancing was great,” freshman Saoirse Poepn said. “I actually think the food and service was great.”
Although those in attendance seemed to have a great time, unfortunately some students were never able to receive a ticket.
With MSD’s population at around 3,500 students, only slightly over a thousand tickets were sold, which was already an increase to the initial amount of tickets. Originally, according to Principal Michelle Kefford who spoke on the topic at a School Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 500 tickets were available for students to purchase for the dance. However, with the number of juniors and seniors who showed upset towards not being able to attend, the school opened a waitlist for all grade levels in case there was availability.
Under Kefford’s, authority she scheduled the removal of tables in the banquet room to allow more students to attend. All juniors and seniors on the waitlist were able to purchase a ticket first, and secondary tickets for freshmen and sophomores were sold days later. She expressed that she did her best to accommodate as many students that wanted to attend the dance as possible, but that venue size is not up to the school or SGA. Leadership teacher Danielle Driscoll shared the same information with the Eagle Eye.
“There are no venue sizes in Broward County that allow 3,500 students to go to homecoming,” Driscoll said. “There are a lot of other factors that go into the number of tickets sold than just how many students attend the school.”
The number of tickets able to be sold varies each year, depending on the size of the venue. But BCPS has the authority to choose and approve a handful of venues for high schools in Broward County, leaving limited options for MSD, a large school, to accommodate all students.
Some students who were not on the waitlist and did not get a ticket felt upset. Others were disappointed as they were unable to attend from scheduling conflicts.
“I was really upset because I felt left out while all my friends and all of my classmates were at homecoming having fun,” freshman Emily Rodriguez said. The students who did receive their tickets enjoyed the dance.
Homecoming tickets sold out in about two hours, leaving people who were not able to access the platform immediately without a ticket. However, despite the frustration of MSD students that could not get a ticket, that was not to the fault of MSD administration who cannot control ticket amounts or the site they use to sell them. MSD is capable of selling more tickets for future years, however, the amount of tickets available will be bound by venue sizes.
Students who applied for the waitlist were able to be accommodated with a ticket and for students that went, they enjoyed the dance.