Lightsaber battle bans students from graduation...

I kind of think this is a bit of an overreaction...

http://io9.com/5806595/students-banned-from-high-school-graduation-because-of-lightsaber-battle

Students banned from high school graduation because of lightsaber battle

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.
I also love how the local news anchors chose to interview — of all the people — the guy on the street wearing the "WHAT'S YOUR O-FACE" t-shirt. I suppose the fellow with the "Female Body Inspector" tee was unavailable that day. Supporters of the Jedi arts have started a Facebook page.

Look, Mr. Principal, this could have been way worse. For example, they could have dressed up as the Max Rebo Band and played that song from Return of the Jedi that's not "Lapti Nek."

Thanks for sharing that ukiyokaze. The administrative reaction is over the top and doesn`t show much understanding for young people living out their youth. And what may stick out even more for Europeans like myself is their so called concern for the safety of others in a country where the bearing of loaded weapons are supported irrespective of the high quota of children who get killed by accident never mind on purpose.

The admin of the school could have, if he thought about it, used this event as good publicity for the school , instead he seems to be racking up negative publicity. He could have showcased how cool his school was , especially if he had it recorded.

Purely my opinion.

MTFBY-A

Well, if he would a flash mobbed it, then he would have been in charge of safety...

We can say what we want, but, lets say it was a real knife fight, or duel with pistols, how would we have reacted?

"Well, the school admin should have known...."
"They did not have metal detectors...."


What doesnt seem like a big deal to me, my boss gets bent out of shape over... I could care less about the number of tables in our rental area, everyone moves them around, puts up, takes down, rearranges, whatever...

My boss says, "we always have 13-14, we WILl always have 13-14... I SAID SO..."

That guy, the Principle, probably has as great a sense of humor as anyone... Had they used the sparring quality sabers, and brusied a couple of kids, broke someones finger, no one would blame him for the suspension... By including the grad walk ban, it may stop others from trying crazier stunts to top this one... And they did say it is going before a tribunal or something...

Laws and rules are always around us and that is of course undeniable. But rules and laws should never be completely adamant and stalwart. The reason for this is because, especially in games, there are the Rules As Written (RAW) and the Rules As Intended (RAI). Someone might make a rule and want it to mean a certain thing, but maybe people interpret it a different way or it is written down badly and it is used in a way that it was never meant to be used, a way of abuse as it were.

Now for real laws, there are the laws as they are written, but there are also laws as they are intended to be used. I take a fairly recent example from Britain, the police have the power to stop and search people they suspect, but that does not mean they should stop and search absolutely everyone in sight. The laws are not 100% and must always be interpreted, so while we have laws we also have the spirit of the law.

I apologise for using a Star Trek reference, but the Prime Directive is that the Federation never interferes with the happenings of another civilisation. I think we can all safely say that Kirk never took the prime directive as written, but rather he interpreted it for each situation so that he could do the most good. The spirit of the prime directive was always there, even if the actual written version was ignored.

We must never forget that there is always two ways of looking at a rule, how it is written, and how it is intended to be used (the spirit of the law). Doing things in the spirit of the law is much more important than being a slave to a list of dos and don'ts.

My favorite comment: "Don't be so hard on the school district, they were just following Order 66."

I think I could understand it if the young men were using something genuinely dangerous but (I assume since most schools have metal detectors these days) they were using the telescoping plastic kind of toy made for five-year-olds to whack each other with, and they disrupted... lunch? School administrators shouldn't turn a *blind* eye. I think it's a detention-worthy stunt, but I think the actual reaction is way out of proportion to the incident in question. It's the sort of knee-jerk draconian tactic that only serves to exacerbate the climate of fear and widen the split between educational administrations and the students they ostensibly serve in this country. At the very least, it calls undue attention to an innocuous bit of silliness that could end up backfiring in the school district's face. The school's response should have been thought through a bit more clearly i.m.o.

On Laws by Kahlil Gibran

You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,
And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.


But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sandtowers,
But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers?
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers?


What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?
And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?
But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?
You who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?
What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door?
What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains?
And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?


You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?