Footloose The Movie Research Paper

Tragic events have a lasting impact on society. How one deals with tragedy varies from person to person and situation. It is easy to assume that children are unable to understand what is going on in time of community or world-wide crisis, however, we do not give them the credit they deserve when it comes to their feelings, knowledge and awareness in these times of crisis. Footloose, a 2011 American musical dance film depicts a small town whose strict rules are built upon a tragic accident involving a group of five high school students who were killed in a car crash on the way home from a school dance.

With no help of outside sources, high school is by itself its’ own crisis for many adolescent students. So much stress, anxiety and pressure

accompany high school culture allowing no room for crisis to be thrown into the mix of hormonal emotions. Unfortunately, crisis can become an honest reality for administrators, teachers and students. How administrators and teachers respond to this reality can largely affect the students’ reactions and behavior. Being prepared to respond to crisis or tragedy in an appropriate way is important when taking on the role of a teacher.
In the film, faculty, administrators, and town leaders respond to the tragic death of five high school students with drastic measures.

As a response to the car accident, which occurred on the way home from a school dance, community leaders decide that it is best for the students of their small town to be banned from all unsupervised dancing and playing of rock music within the city limits as well as a by-law curfew. This would sound like a pretty outlandish law to anyone, especially high school students. Ariel, sister to one of the teenagers killed in the accident, deeply expresses her feelings on the matter to her father, town reverend and lead figure in the passing of the laws, during the church scene in the film. Ariel expresses her hatred for rules because they place blame for everything on her brother Bobby. In the scene she screams, “Now nobody remembers the good things about Bobby. All they remember is that damn accident.” She goes on to say that students point out that they do not have a school dance because of Bobby, or they are not allowed to listen to music because of Bobby. Instead of educating the students on why they need to make certain choices to be safe and protect themselves, the adult leaders have only created resentment for the students involved in the tragedy, the rules governing their town, and the adults forcing the harsh rules upon them. This caused the adolescents to chase rebellion in various

forms.
Tragedy is something that we as humans and teachers can not control and unfortunately we can be faced with its existence in our classroom in a very real way.

Education World newsletter for teachers discusses what schools should do when tragedy strikes. They point out that the aftermath of a tragedy provides an opportunity to increase prevention efforts and to reduce further deaths. Students can be very vulnerable and impressionable during this time. Education World states “the matter in which a school staff handles a crisis or death directly relates to how well students cope”. The way in which administrators handle tragedy in Footloose may have been overly dramatic and even more damaging to the students. I think it is important to have a clear process for school administrators and staff as to how to deal with a tragic

situation.
When tragedy strikes, it is first priority to verify all of the facts about the situation from a reliable source. It is very important to not underestimate the impact of the situation on the school community. Before discussing the tragedy with students, administrators should allow faculty time to process the event first. Then they will be prepared to take on the role of educator, friend, and counselor to the students who will have their array of questions and emotions. It is crucial that there is opportunity for students and faculty to talk about their emotions and feel comfortable doing so. It needs to be recognized that it may take time for everyone to process and work through such an event.
Most importantly, I think it is necessary to remember that high school students are keenly aware of what is going on in their world around them. In Footloose, during the scene when Ariel finally lets out her feelings on the accident and rules that followed, she shouts at her father “I hate it when you treat me like a child!” and her father argues back “we don’t expect you to understand everything we do in order to keep you safe.” We need to remember that high school students are young adults who should and need to be taken seriously. They are more intelligent than they are given credit for and deserve a fair chance for their voice to be heard.