A king and queen will still be crowned, but the official 2021 Lehighton Area High School homecoming dance has been canceled for the second straight year due to COVID-19.

Administrators said Monday night that providing a safe environment given current COVID-19 restrictions would be difficult, leading to the decision.

“We’re talking about anywhere from 400 to 500 students and my question to them was can you guarantee you’ll be physically apart from one another and not dancing together for three-and-a-half to four hours,” high school Principal Sue Howland said.

“Ultimately, student council approached me and their advisers and suggested we postpone it this year. We’re not looking to possibly quarantine hundreds of kids at a time. We also really don’t want to get into playing mask police with 450-plus kids in a gymnasium.”

The LHS student council is still planning activities such as an outdoor pep rally on Oct. 8, the day of the homecoming football game against Bangor.

“More information on those activities will be coming out shortly,” Howland said.

While a homecoming dance is not being held on school grounds, a private event is being planned for the Lehighton Recreation Center on Oct. 9 from 5-9 p.m. Dubbed “Homecoming Remix 2021,” the dance was planned by students including Rylie Bryfogle and Leah Mickley.

“This was one of our last opportunities to actually have a school activity,” an emotional Bryfogle said.

“I took it upon myself to plan one and it’s going great. We have a lot of parents and community organizations reaching out in support of us. It’s just really sad this opportunity was taken away from us.”

Board President Larry Stern said events not sponsored by the district are held to a different standard.

“They don’t have to live under the guidelines we do,” Stern said. “It’s a private party and private parties don’t have to do what schools do.”

A similar situation is unfolding in Northwestern Lehigh School District, where the official homecoming dance was canceled. A group of parents came together to plan a dance on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Lotus Springs. That prompted Jason Zimmerman, Northwestern’s athletic and student activities director, to issue a letter to students, urging them not to attend.

Northern Lehigh School District is having an official homecoming dance, scheduled from 4-7 p.m. on Oct. 16 outside at Bulldog Community Stadium. Palmerton Area School District’s homecoming dance is also still scheduled.

The decision to cancel Lehighton’s event sparked controversy during Monday night’s board meeting, and several people in attendance questioned why football games could be held in the athletic stadium with hundreds of fans in attendance, but not the dance.

“There are logistical issues with having it outdoors as well,” Howland said. “Turf is tricky to have a dance on because you’re not going to have tents, you’re not going to be able to wear heels. Weather is also a factor you have to keep in mind.”

District resident Ryan Bowman told the board he worries about the effect the cancellation of events such as the homecoming dance will have on students’ mental health.

“Let the kids be kids,” resident Ryan Bowman said. “If a parent chooses not to allow their kid to attend homecoming, so be it. Again, it comes down to parent choice. Let them have that experience.”

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said concerns over having to quarantine a large number of students plays a large role in the district’s decision making.

“Our main goal is to keep kids in school,” he said. “I think it’s important to note that because of the steps we took last year, we were one of the few district’s in the state to be able to have kids here in school every day.”