With the homecoming dance over, students will have to wait only another month or more to attend their next social event, Associate Student Body [ASB] officials said.

But like with the Oct. 16 event, any upcoming stag dances for the 2021-2022 school year are projected to be held at the Sunny Hills quad instead of the gym to meet state COVID-19 health and safety guidelines that restrict indoor activities to crowds of no more than 1,000.

“We are leaning toward doing stag outdoors, and we heard that in the past, people really liked having it outdoors,” ASB Parent-Teacher-Student Association [PTSA] commissioner senior Tara Kim said.

In previous years, the PTSA worked with the ASB to organize these events as part of PTSA fundraisers; stag dances do not require someone to officially ask a date in order to attend.

Although the first stag dance was originally scheduled for the beginning of the school year on Aug. 27, it has since been postponed almost three months because the ASB prioritized the students’ safety, and the event could not be rescheduled because of a conflict with the Oct. 16 homecoming dance.

ASB co-adviser Mike Paris said the ASB is looking to schedule the next upcoming stag dance for November, although a specific date has not been determined as of this month.

A lot of what will happen with stags will depend on the COVID-19 situation at the time. “We normally have a welcoming stag, middle stag and an end-of-the-year stag,” Paris said. “The first welcoming stag was canceled because of COVID-19, [but] the one in the middle could be flexible — maybe between Thanksgiving and winter break. Hopefully by the end of the year, we won’t be restricted [from] having it indoors because it breaks the traditional stag event.”

Senior Paul Yoo is one of the students who looked forward to attending the first stag before it was postponed.

“I didn’t attend any dances in my previous years because none of my friends really went,” said Yoo, who did not attend the homecoming dance but instead chose to go bowling with his friends. “I wanted to go this year because it would be my first and last time to enjoy these dances while I am in high school.”

As no stag dances were held last year with the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, underclassmen, including sophomore Kayla Taylor, missed out on the chance to experience their first high school social.

“I will attend stag this year if there is one, whether that be outdoors or in the gym,” said Taylor, who chose to also attend the homecoming dance. “I am looking forward to a less formal dance that I can go to with my friends because I couldn’t do that freshman year.”

To make up for the loss of another awaited traditional campus event, the ASB hopes to have at least three more stag dances before the school year ends. The specific dates and themes for these have not been determined.

“We’re not sure about what the situation will be like by the next stag,” the ASB’s PTSA commissioner said. “But I think it’ll be safe as long as students wear masks to attend the event.”