My name is Callum. I'm a 9th grader at Berea Community High School.

In 2021, I went to the Homecoming dance, and I had a terrible time.

I don't want to sound like a downer, or make everything about me, but the reason I didn't have a good time at this dance was because it was plainly just way too loud and overwhelming. I think there are ways that we can improve the ways that school dances are held at this school.

I'm writing to the school board as part of my Political Action Project, and I think it would really help my case if I got a lot of people to agree that this is a problem. So it would mean a lot if you could sign this petition. It will only take a moment, but it would really help me. Even if you personally don't mind the overwhelming nature of school dances, it would still be great if you could sign the petition.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Homecoming was in the atrium, which was too small a space to hold a dance. I think it should be required to hold school dances in the gym.

2. Having a separate room. I'm autistic, and because of that I was given the accommodation of leaving the dance to stand outside and calm down from the noise. The only issue with this is that it meant I had to isolate myself. I think there should be a separate "quiet room" with snacks for people to hang out and briefly escape the noise. We could hold this in the cafeteria, or just the hallway outside of the gym.

3. Less speakers. Another issue with Homecoming was the amount of speakers. In that small space, there were four speakers, one in each corner, so wherever you went, the sound was equally loud. There was literally no escape from the noise. I think it would be good to space out the speakers, so that people who don't like loud noise but still want to dance can control how much noise they're around.

If you have any other suggestions, please email me at catherine.tait@stu.berea.kyschools.us (Catherine is my legal name but not my preferred name FYI).

Thank you so much for reading all of this.