Check out this report of two Massachusetts seniors that got banned from graduation after staging a lightsaber duel during lunch on the last day of school. The pair put together a choreographed routine so they could “go out with a bang”, and the school suspended them for it.
There are two things about this story that stick out to me. First, as much as I like lightsabers I think the school is within its bounds to suspend two kids who start whacking at each other with plastic sticks in the middle of the lunchroom. The punishment of a ten-day suspension and not being allowed to walk at graduation seems harsh, but from a risk/reward standpoint the school doesn’t have many other tools it can use to enforce order on two seniors with a few weeks left. If they were just suspended, it’d be like getting out of school two weeks early.
The second thing is just how fail the reporter’s story was. When two kids stage a lightsaber fight at the local school, show me the actual kids involved instead of movie clips (ESPECIALLY the prequels). Go to their house, get them to re-enact their fight, show me the lightsabers they used: were they the cheap Hasbro toys? The fancy Force-FX models? Homemade sabers? Are you telling me NONE of those teenagers had an iPhone on them when the duel broke out? And for Sith’s sake, don’t interview the “friend” wearing the “What’s Your O-Face?” shirt: stay classy, Massachusetts senior dude.
My question that isn’t answered: did the students seek permission to do the duel and were denied? It seems like a simple thing, go to the school and say “Hey, we’d like to do this, here’s the planning we’ve put into it, we’ve taken these safety precautions, what do you think?” If they did ask and turned down, then the punishment has a bit more perspective than just from a spontaneous duel breaking out.
The Force is definitely not with anyone involved in this whole situation.
"Do or Do Not. There is no Try."
ReplyDeleteThey should have "Did not" that day and did the "duel" on graduation day as they walked. Kids just aren't good at thinking things through especially when it is premeditated. The "i"-phone generation scares me.