Prom Safety for Coronavirus (COVID-19)

You’ve probably spent months planning your school’s spring prom – the hallmark event for your seniors. However, amidst fears about the threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19), some schools are contemplating canceling large social events altogether. While each school’s decision is completely discretionary, if your school does decide to proceed with having a prom or other large social event, here are some tips to keep things clean and sanitary:

1. Hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE – You can never have enough hand sanitizer. Keep hand sanitizer stations convenient throughout your event space. Perhaps even give it to students as a favor at the dance.
2. Circulation – If your prom is in a place where you can open windows or doors (weather permitting), do so to allow circulation throughout the event.
3. Offer a mask decorating station – If you are extremely concerned about the spread of germs, ask all students to wear masks. Consider a mask decorating contest using fun jewels, stickers, or markers to align with your theme.
4. Consider alternative activities to dancing – Proms can be challenging, especially asking students to avoid close physical contact. Instead of facilitating a dance floor, consider other activities instead of dancing where you can properly sterilize things. Some examples of this would be video game or board game stations (with sanitizing wipes nearby), outdoor games or a field day (weather permitting), an outside picnic, or simply good music and a nice dinner, without dancing.
5. Make all attendees sign a waiver that they will not come if experiencing signs of sickness – Recently a person attended a dance that ignored a directive not to attend due to potential exposure and cited that it was because he was “never told”. Most schools have students, parents, and out of school guests sign off on behavioral agreements to attend the prom, and if your school does not do this, we highly recommend it to reduce liabilities. My School Dance allows you to customize these agreements for electronic distribution to all necessary parties. An example of a clause you could put in at the bottom of your agreement is: “If in the last two weeks, you or someone living in your house has been experiencing flu-like symptoms or has been in contact with someone carrying COVID-19, you are not permitted to attend the dance. If found in violation of this, you could face disciplinary or legal action and will endanger hundreds of other students and families. Please be respectful of the health of our community.”

We hope you still want to provide your students with a memorable prom experience with the right precautions. If you choose to cancel or postpone your prom, that is ok to do as well. The health and safety of your students are first and foremost above everything.

Stay informed. The CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) are updating their sites with the latest information.

Happy Dancing,

My School Dance