What Happened to No Means No

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I surf Facebook a lot. It's a side effect of waiting for videos to play on my laptop so I get bored. When this came upon my screen I was shocked and just had to read further. The article was by Today.com and was about a girl being forced to dance with a boy that made her uncomfortable. It was a Valentine's Day dance for the middle schoolers and it's supposed to be a fun activity. When the boy came up to the 11 year old girl and asked her to dance, she tried to politely say no. That is supposedly when the principal got involved and, in my own words, coerced them to the dance floor. This parent was outraged and had no issue taking it public. What interested me though, wasn't her outrage because really, I would be too, but it was the school's response to the outrage and questions. I quote from the article on Today.com "We do ask all students to dance. It is the nice thing to do and this will continue to be our policy," Motta wrote on Feb. 15. "There have been similar situations in the past where some students have felt uncomfortable with others, and, as stated prior, the issues were discreetly handled. This allowed all students to feel welcome, comfortable, safe and included." Now to me this sounds like other parents had complained about this policy before and nothing was actually done. I can understand wanting to have the students feel comfortable in a social setting and want them to dance and get along. The fact is though, not everyone is like that, even at that young age. What if the person asked was being bullied by the kid doing the asking? Of course they don't want to dance with them, they wouldn't want to be anywhere near them. What if the child suffers an emotional disorder, like anxiety? The social setting would be overwhelming as it is, then to force them to dance cold just send them over the edge. There are so many reasons why a child, because that's what these kids are, could not want to dance with someone. Encouragement is one thing but forcing the issue is something else entirely and I wouldn't stand for it. Have you seen this issue? It's been all over facebook the last few days. *picture from google