After losing one of the most looked-forward-to events two years in a row due to COVID-19, seniors Lily Winsten and Jess Marzano expressed disappointment surrounding the Aug. 19 decision to cancel all BPS Homecoming dances.

Prior to the cancellation, Winsten, Student Government Association’s former secretary, and Marzano, former SGA treasurer, met with SGA sponsor Kaitlyn Hoskins to discuss plans, policies and predictions for the upcoming dance.

Although 2021 SGA elections are ongoing and no positions have been elected thus far, Winsten and Marzano met with Hoskins to get an early start on preparations for the event. Both Winsten and Marzano received student questions concerning the status and safety of the dance. According to Winsten, both the venue and the DJ were already booked for the event. Although the dance’s theme was still being discussed, prospectively, it likely may have been “A Night in Vegas”, or “A Night Under The Lights.”

Marzano said the cancellation did not come as a surprise.

“No one had really talked about cancelling the dance,” Marzano said. “But, honestly, with the [COVID-19] numbers being this bad, I wasn’t really that shocked that they decided to cancel the dance, especially since we have so many teachers and students out on quarantine and due to having COVID. Obviously though, since the dance did end up being canceled, I’m really upset because we won’t be having a homecoming our 11th or 12th grade year. So we’re missing out on a lot of the core memories of high school that a lot of people think back to when they go off to college.”

Winsten said she agreed with Marzano, expressing how the situation was “just really frustrating.”

“I feel like we’ve put a lot of effort into this whole thing, especially the student government over these past four years,” Winsten said. “We were raised from freshmen to come into these positions, and we tried to work really hard to get a homecoming last year. We had planned everything out and had everything ready, and then we didn’t end up getting the OK to do it. We put all the work in last year and it got canceled, and even more so this year. In higher positions as both students and members of the SGA, it’s just really devastating having put in all this work again to get everything approved, just for it to not even be able to happen.”

Similarly, Hoskins expressed her disappointment in the news.

“I mean, I know the district and the school were really wanting everything to happen as normal as possible,” Hoskins said. “I didn’t see them canceling homecoming, except maybe because there have been a lot of quarantines. You know, kids are vaccinated, or already had COVID, so I thought it might be OK. It’s very upsetting for everyone to not have a Homecoming for two years in a row.”