Doors close on Baronial

Anaissa L. Del Rio, Sports Editor|February 5, 2022

Stephanie Liang

Bonita Vista High Task Force 2022 announced the cancellation of Baronial on their Instagram on Feb. 1. According to a poll conducted by The Crusader, 45.9 percent of the 846 students at BVH who completed the poll were looking forward to Baronial.

On Feb. 1st, Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) Task Force class of 2022 officially announced the cancellation of the annual Baronial dance through their Instagram with a post. After taking into consideration the recent spike found in COVID-19 cases, the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) decided to stop any preparations made and cancel the event.  

Unlike many schools that have winter formals, BVH has a traditional Baronial to take the place of a winter dance. The name ‘Baronial’ originated and coincided with the BVH school mascot—the Barons. Usually, the dance holds a smaller audience and is less formal compared to dances like senior prom and homecoming.

“Baronial is kind of a mix of a winter prom slash Sadie Hawkins. Sadie Hawkins is where the girls ask the guys to dance which is not heavily enforced but is an idea associated with Baronial,” Task Force class of 2022 President and senior Isabella Garcia said.

A big theme of Baronial includes this concept of girls asking their desired dates to the dance as opposed to the other way around. Baronial also holds a court with candidates chosen among the students of BVH.

“There’s an annual Baronial Court with different court opportunities for all grade levels, similar to Homecoming,” Task Force class of 2022 Secretary and senior Noor Alramadan said.

The venue for which Baronial can take place differs. Prior to the official cancellation of this year’s Baronial, Task Force had begun researching different venues and planning ideas for the venue setup. Garcia along with Task Force ‘22 Co-Vice Presidents and seniors Michelle Armenta and Ingrid Alcantara were involved in discussing the dances venue. Task Force Class of 2022 Advisor Robert Tucker then took the officers to tour the venue in hopes of finding one that worked for Baronial and making a final decision on the location. 

In the end, a venue had been decided on by the Task Force. Associated Student Body (ASB) administrator Christopher Alvarez then contacted SUHSD and sent a request to get the venue to their office.

“[SUHSD] had some reservations about the venue, because the venue is technically not outdoors. It’s got garage doors, where you get a lot of airflow [into the venue], but it’s still technically indoors,” Tucker said.

Many guidelines have been changed and upgraded due to the new COVID-19 Omicron variant and the venue does not completely follow the new guidelines. This is because it is not entirely outside and there is an increasing number of COVID-19 cases thus, the probability of a school dance occurring was very low.

“It didn’t seem like [Baronial] was going to happen anyway, but we were optimistic that it was gonna happen,” Tucker said.

Although Baronial did in fact get canceled and the preparations made were stopped, Task Force class of 2022 has begun a new focus on the annual Morp dance that takes place in the month of April. Task Force ‘22 has discussed having the dance on campus for safety reasons while also, accounting for another important factor; the cost. Having the dance on campus would result in a less costly event rather than having it at a venue like the USS Midway, where the most recent BVH Homecoming dance took place.

“It’s all been up in the air.  They’re always seeing what happens from one day to the next and so that’s why we decided that it [would] be best right now to cancel [Baronial] and worry about Morp coming up in April,” Tucker said.

Despite the cancellation of Baronial, the Morp and Senior prom events have created something for many to look forward to for the rest of the school year.

“[I was] very sad [when Baronial was canceled] not just for myself, but for the rest of the senior class too,” Alramadan said. “It was our last opportunity to go to a high school winter formal [Baronial] and just to have that experience. But, I’m really hoping that as cases go down we can still hold traditional senior events, like GradNite and Prom.”

This piece was updated on February 21