Wait, what? For 17 years, Seattle outlawed teen dancing

It may be hard to imagine, but there was a time not too long ago when Seattle teenagers could not attend public dances or concerts without a chaperone. From 1985 to 2002, teen dances outside of schools were virtually banned.

“Let the Kids Dance!” is a new KUOW docuseries hosted by journalist Jonathan Zwickel. It tells the story of an era in Seattle politics, music, and activism many may not be aware of.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: What was going on in 1985 and in the years leading up to it that got this ban on teen dances passed?

Jonathan Zwickel: In Seattle, there was a perception of teenage runaways living on the streets. And this was a real problem. In the mid-70s, there was a count of 5,000 or so young people living on the streets of King County, a very visible population at that time. That's happening in Seattle. You have these national trends going on as well. That led to a moment of, "Just think of the children, we have to protect the children."

And so they passed this blanket ban. Did they know what the consequences would be?

Absolutely not. The city council, and the city attorney, somehow believed that by banning teenage discos, they were going to solve the problem of homelessness. That to me is sort of, I guess, emblematic of the sort of political will that goes into putting a band-aid on the problem, rather than finding a real solution to the basis of the problem itself.

How did the kids react when this ordinance came down?

There was immediate pushback. Along with politicians at that time, there were parents’ advocacy groups. “Parents in Arms” was one of these groups. And then there were also counter factions of young people, "Youth in Arms." These were young people who attended these teen discos, who recognized when that was taken away from them that they were losing their rights. And so they immediately rallied, and in some cases, got really savvy in the way they presented their argument. But at that time, I don't think young people were given much credence or validation as being potentially productive members of society, so they weren't really taken seriously.

As this debate spooled out, and the authorities tried to enforce this dance ordinance, someone you quoted in your story says this went way too far. They called it a type of McCarthyism. What ways did it go too far?

It didn't necessarily go too far, it just went in the wrong direction. If we do agree that it's important to provide safe spaces for young people to congregate under adult supervision but without adult influence, then there are ways to enable that kind of socializing, so that it feels productive and it also is given an imprimatur of cool by young people, maybe because of their participation in how these things are created, rather than take a top-down approach, and try to legislate these places. I think that's where we maybe went too far.

This wasn't really a place for government, for a law to be applied. This was a place for a community forum to develop an alternative structure to allow young people to be able to congregate in the way that they wanted to.

At the end of the first episode, you do a shout out for messages from listeners. What are you looking for if people want to share a story with you, and where should they go?

We’re soliciting voice memos from folks who may have lived through the teen-dance ordinance. The more I talk about this podcast to my friends and friends of friends, the more I hear about people who lived through it. You can email us at dance@kuow.org

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.