After-school Activities

[Ryoga]

Okay, here's a little legal issue I'd pose to the board. I recently discovered something that a friend of mine is going through, so I could use some input:

At his high school, he's in a program that requires you to choose between taking Bioengineering or Robotics during your senior year. He chose Robotics (I warned him, but...*sigh*). Now, the first day of class, the teacher explained to him that it was against the law to require students to stay 'til about 8 PM or so, so membership in the Robotics Club was entirely optional. A few weeks later, after the chance to switch out of the class had gone by, he changed his tune: now you have to join the Robotics Club, or you flunk. Simple as that. My question to the board is: is this a crime? Should I or my friend start complaining to the newspapers, since the school itself is 100% behind the idea?

[Stormbringer]

A school can't generally do that. It is possible that with the right (or wrong as it were) people it'd be allowed.

[Wicked Pilot]

I would advise him to schedule an appointment with whichever school board member represents his area. If they are unwilling to intervene, then he should take it to the state level.

[Nathan F]

First off, what kind of friggen school do you go to that has Bioengineering and Robotics?!

Good gosh, we just had Robotics as a section of a class my senior year...

[Ryoga]

Robotics, as far as I knew from when I took it (and what I told my friend, when he was just an upcoming Senior), was just a course where you got to build small robots out of Legos. It was rather cute and amusing, but when they suddenly got the idea this year to submit a real robot to the U.S. First competition (www.first.org), things went out of hand. Since this 'friend' is my brother, I kinda have a vested interest in seeing him not fliunk because of some dumbass quasi-pedophile who's gotten too big for his britches.

I'm going to be mad all weekend over this. Can you tell?

[Zaia]

What type of school is this? Public? Private? Religious? Magnet? That matters hugely in how much of your life (or your brother's, in this case) they can dictate.

As far as I am aware, school politics are everywhere and nothing can legally be done about any of it. You must start with whoever is causing the problem, and if they don't help you, go the next step up, etc etc until someone helps you or you must admit defeat.

[phongn]

Ahh, FIRST. My high school generally kicked much ass in the regional competition. Beowulf has done it too, IIRC.