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Oh, HELL no: idiot Sith principal suspends heroic Jedi performers

Gaith

Gaith

Vice Admiral
Admiral
Fail. Just fail. I'm not even going to call this a prank, because a prank requires a target, be it a person, event or thing; this had no particular target besides a public audience, and is thus performance art.



From io9 (click for lame-ass local news video):
Students banned from high school graduation because of lightsaber battle

Cyriaque Lamar — A choreographed lightsaber battle in their school cafeteria landed two Westfield, Massachusetts seniors a two-day suspension and a blacklisting at their high school graduation. I presume this school district's had a spate of Sith gang violence, hence the zero-tolerance policy.

Supporters of the Jedi arts have started a Facebook page.

​
Someone on that Facebook page advocated a Jedi flash mob outside the graduation, which I fully approve of; someone else suggested that all the students bring lightsabers to the graduation, which would also be entirely appropriate.

That these kids have already written apologies is a bummer. They should be the ones getting some of that action.

Stand, this shall not! :vulcan:
 
Admiral James Kirk said:
What a load of horseshit! Suspending kids for playing? What next? Shoot for the cat for purring? Insanity!
Click to expand...

This type of nonsense seems to be happening more and more. It's very sad that I have to say this, but I'm so happy I went to high school in the mid-1980s, which truly does appear to have been a more enlightened time. And yes, that should be taken as an insult to the current education system and those who practice nonsense like we see described here.

Alex
 
23skidoo said:
the mid-1980s, which truly does appear to have been a more enlightened time.
Click to expand...
No, they were just stupid in different (and, it must be said, more harmful) ways. This doesn't really harm anyone, especially since I guarantee the kids'll be invited to graduation, but that doesn't mean we can't all bitch about it anyway. :p
 
They haven't had graduation yet? It's almost June.

It seems like every year there's a big news story about some kid(s) being banned from graduation for something very minor and then there's always a big backlash and the the school finally relents.

Seems like the schools should learn at this point that it's a lot easier to just let the kids walk and then never have to deal with them again.
 
Unfortunately, everything is an ecosystem. It's not the only reason, but one reason why schools are increasingly behaving this way towards students is because of parents. Parents increasingly blame schools for "their little angel" going batshit nuts and harassing students, hurting people, or getting disciplined for legitimate reasons. So, schools adopt incredible zero tolerance policies for students behaving in any way other than robots that have zero physical contact with one another.

And problem parents raise hell over almost everything else; often it is these sorts of people who ironically use school as a dumping ground for their kid, a surrogate parent, and are glad they don't have to deal with their kid most of the day. So schools tighten the noose around kids even further in all things. They create layers of policies, rules, and regulations, so that there is an extreme amount of documentation and procedure for almost everything.

Not helping the picture is how little public education is valued in the US. Schools are seen as mere factories to educate the middle and lower classes into the next generation of labor force for those who benefit from that, and so funding is cut, and states do everything they can to put the screws on the schools first. This leads to vicious and often underhanded competition between schools and school districts. Anything to manipulate the other schools into taking the fall and having stuff pulled, including citing records of "violence" and "incidents" at a school one is trying to smear.

Sorry - I know a couple of people who work in the technology department of a public school, and it's one of the "lucky" ones: the faculty and school board are desperately devoted to stemming the tide of all the damage being done and creatively manipulating the system to try and raise the standard for education and how students are treated.

And guess what? I've heard that this year, that school board is expecting to be handed their walking papers by voters in the area, because they won't budge on stripping every single other program at their district's schools to prop up funding for the sports teams. All the boofer parents are angry that their 8 foot tall no-neck blockhead eldest son "won't go to the NFL and be a star for America."
 
the mid-1980s, which truly does appear to have been a more enlightened time.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh, memories of high school in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High era. You could give a Midol to a cramping friend without being busted for drugs. If you wanted a day off, you could call in a bomb threat. We all did that. Tell that to a kid today and they'll be shocked, but it happened at least 2 or 3 times a year in my hometown. People knew it was kids. The police knew. But they had to shut down the school and search, as a matter of precaution. Hell, what were they gonna do? Nail you will *69? What's Star 69? What's caller ID? Check my cell phone to see if I made a call? What's a cell phone? Ahhhhhh, good times. Hell, it was a right of passage.

I'm convinced the (early for me) 80s were the last time that receiving a quality public education was possible. It doesn't happen anymore if you aren't home schooled or in private school.
 
We don't do 'graduation' from schools where I live. They have a big party and then put the school on e-bay.
 
Kaijima said:
Unfortunately, everything is an ecosystem. It's not the only reason, but one reason why schools are increasingly behaving this way towards students is because of parents. Parents increasingly blame schools for "their little angel" going batshit nuts and harassing students, hurting people, or getting disciplined for legitimate reasons. So, schools adopt incredible zero tolerance policies for students behaving in any way other than robots that have zero physical contact with one another.

And problem parents raise hell over almost everything else; often it is these sorts of people who ironically use school as a dumping ground for their kid, a surrogate parent, and are glad they don't have to deal with their kid most of the day. So schools tighten the noose around kids even further in all things. They create layers of policies, rules, and regulations, so that there is an extreme amount of documentation and procedure for almost everything.

Not helping the picture is how little public education is valued in the US. Schools are seen as mere factories to educate the middle and lower classes into the next generation of labor force for those who benefit from that, and so funding is cut, and states do everything they can to put the screws on the schools first. This leads to vicious and often underhanded competition between schools and school districts. Anything to manipulate the other schools into taking the fall and having stuff pulled, including citing records of "violence" and "incidents" at a school one is trying to smear.

Sorry - I know a couple of people who work in the technology department of a public school, and it's one of the "lucky" ones: the faculty and school board are desperately devoted to stemming the tide of all the damage being done and creatively manipulating the system to try and raise the standard for education and how students are treated.

And guess what? I've heard that this year, that school board is expecting to be handed their walking papers by voters in the area, because they won't budge on stripping every single other program at their district's schools to prop up funding for the sports teams. All the boofer parents are angry that their 8 foot tall no-neck blockhead eldest son "won't go to the NFL and be a star for America."
Click to expand...

^ This, although I wouldn't say schools try to manipulate things.

Schools seem to have a tendency to be hated and loved at the same time. It is a lot like Star Trek and community people are like Star Trek fanboys.

23skidoo said:
I'm so happy I went to high school in the mid-1980s, which truly does appear to have been a more enlightened time.
Click to expand...

What a ridiculous saying.

You mean the period with less and less in the classroom, with teachers mainly lecturing and not being trained to teach to various learning types, with fewer options and opportunities for schools, and with generally lower state standards for students to learn and subsequently graduate?

I'm not saying things are perfect now (will they ever be?), but the 80s were not some enlightened time better than all others.

Distorted Humor said:
Glad I graduated a Just before the insanity started...Almost tempted to set up a charter school...
Click to expand...

Except that charter schools produce about the same results as public schools.
 
Broccoli said:
.
Except that charter schools produce about the same results as public schools.
Click to expand...

But it would be better if school age kids get the pluses of todays education system, but without all the #$)#$ that the education throws at them on a daily basis. It also depends on the school, the students, and if the parents give a rats-behind on how well a school teaches its students. I said charter school in the sense of setting up a new school that wouldn't dovetail into stuff like OP is referring to.
 
What would be best for everyone, is if the money sucking School Ditrict Administration was cut way back and the "Cost per Kid being educated" actually got to the school.

The useless, overpaid, overbloated beuaracracy outside of the actual school whittles the money that actually gets into the school, down to nothing, and makes it look like we spend $5000-10,000 per kid (depending upon state) to educate them.
 
You guys may be missing something kinda big: This most likely wasn't their first offense. God forbid. Kids today (and I know this sounds curmudgeony, but it's true) are spoiled rotten far beyond anything that's come before. There's a reason schools have installed metal detectors en masse and there's a reason teachers show up in the news with beaten faces on a regular basis.

Anyway, if you really think an educator would blacklist -- literally blacklist -- two otherwise upstanding kids from their graduation for one minor offense, well, I just don't know what to say about that.

The current education system is a result of the kids (which is entirely the parent's fault)... not the other way around.
 
Checkmate said:
The current education system is a result of the kids (which is entirely the parent's fault)... not the other way around.
Click to expand...

Happens all the Time, Went to school with a kid who never had any problems with school, sat down in first class, felt that he had his pocket knife (1 1/2 inch blade) in his pants, asked for a hall pass, and was caught putting it in his glove compartment Suspended two weeks and didn't graduate as the suspension overlapped graduation.
 
Checkmate said:
You guys may be missing something kinda big: This most likely wasn't their first offense. God forbid. Kids today (and I know this sounds curmudgeony, but it's true) are spoiled rotten far beyond anything that's come before. There's a reason schools have installed metal detectors en masse and there's a reason teachers show up in the news with beaten faces on a regular basis.

Anyway, if you really think an educator would blacklist -- literally blacklist -- two otherwise upstanding kids from their graduation for one minor offense, well, I just don't know what to say about that.

The current education system is a result of the kids (which is entirely the parent's fault)... not the other way around.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... Not sure what "how many offenses" has to do with it, the article says they were suspended for playing with Toy Light Sabers during a break.
 
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