School Bans Rolling Snowballs

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-18 12:57am

Stofsk wrote: You speak the truth Mike, but schools like to keep selling that particular bullshit lie to their students - I know mine did. I went to a private school which had an "image" to uphold, so they were strict on a couple of things. One example of their bullshit was telling students to obey the uniform regulations outside before and after school hours (like for instance wearing the uniform in it's entirety and respectably at a shopping centre, or some other public place).

It's a fucking stupid rule but that doesn't stop schools from being anal about it.

That's dumbshit. How'd they enforce such inane putrid shit?

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-18 12:57am

Darth Wong wrote:
Ender wrote:Maybe in canada, back home its routine for schools to punish kids for stuff that goes on a parties on weekends at students homes.
Are you serious? That's fucking retarded.

Yep. If say a fight breaks out at a party, aside from getting in trouble with your parents, and the cops if they get called, the school will also suspend you, even if you were just watching it and not involved.

Happened to my brother last year, and something similar happened with drinking while I was in school.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-18 12:59am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:
Stofsk wrote: You speak the truth Mike, but schools like to keep selling that particular bullshit lie to their students - I know mine did. I went to a private school which had an "image" to uphold, so they were strict on a couple of things. One example of their bullshit was telling students to obey the uniform regulations outside before and after school hours (like for instance wearing the uniform in it's entirety and respectably at a shopping centre, or some other public place).

It's a fucking stupid rule but that doesn't stop schools from being anal about it.
That's dumbshit. How'd they enforce such inane putrid shit?

Schools get weasel kids to rat on each other, pressure the parents to enforce it, and have a good dialogue with other community groups to keep an eye on what is going on.

Not really that difficult.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-12-18 12:59am

Ender wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Rubberanvil wrote:That will still get you in trouble at many schools where their rules applies to everywhere withing eyeball distance and/or within several hundred to couple thousand feet the campus.
Don't be silly; the school's jurisdiction stops at the property line. There's a line of sight between my kids' school and a local park, and no one's ever been penalized for breaking school rules at the park.
Maybe in canada, back home its routine for schools to punish kids for stuff that goes on a parties on weekends at students homes.

Were they athletes or something like that?

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-12-18 01:03am

Darth Wong wrote:
Ender wrote:Maybe in canada, back home its routine for schools to punish kids for stuff that goes on a parties on weekends at students homes.
Are you serious? That's fucking retarded.

It happened to roughly 50 students at my high school. A party over Winter break got busted, and the students who were arrested for underage drinking were all suspended.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-12-18 01:06am

I don't understand why you are so upset aerius, they are at school to learn, not to make snowballs, big or small.
People don't seem to realize how many things are privileges and it is well within the schools rights to remove them as they see fit. Don't get mad at the school for protecting itself, instead get mad at the kids who screwed it up for everyone at that school.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-18 01:36am

Alex Moon wrote:
Ender wrote:
Darth Wong wrote: Don't be silly; the school's jurisdiction stops at the property line. There's a line of sight between my kids' school and a local park, and no one's ever been penalized for breaking school rules at the park.
Maybe in canada, back home its routine for schools to punish kids for stuff that goes on a parties on weekends at students homes.
Were they athletes or something like that?

Actually, the one time it was our football team the week before their big game, none of them wee punished. Double standards. go figure

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-18 02:01am

Ender wrote:Yep. If say a fight breaks out at a party, aside from getting in trouble with your parents, and the cops if they get called, the school will also suspend you, even if you were just watching it and not involved.

Happened to my brother last year, and something similar happened with drinking while I was in school.

I can't stand the school system. Talk about a bunch of whiny, paranoid, limp-wristed, greasy ass-kissers.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-12-18 02:24am

Ender wrote:
Alex Moon wrote:
Ender wrote:Maybe in canada, back home its routine for schools to punish kids for stuff that goes on a parties on weekends at students homes.
Were they athletes or something like that?
Actually, the one time it was our football team the week before their big game, none of them wee punished. Double standards. go figure

Huh. I know my football coach was willing to come down on players if they got in trouble outside of school, which is why I asked.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-18 02:29am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:
Stofsk wrote:...It's a fucking stupid rule but that doesn't stop schools from being anal about it.
That's dumbshit. How'd they enforce such inane putrid shit?

Legally? I don't think they can enforce it at all. At least, I hope not.

Realistically? If a teacher caught a student in the hypothetical situation I outlined above then the teacher would order the student to tuck in his shirt or whatever. If the student said "fuck off" then he's got a date with the detention hall the following day. I remember one time in class where this very discussion took place, and the teacher pretty much intimated that this would be the course of action taken.

Is it just? Hell no. That doesn't stop those in power from exercising their power in a fuckhead way. I should point out that the high school I attended was an Anglican private school, not a State school. I suppose when you pay for quality you get it.

It makes me wonder how State schools handle such matters.

That's not the only bizarre step my school took. They also liked to give out guidelines for parties to parents, telling them all the things they can and can't do.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-12-18 11:23am

Death from the Sea wrote:I don't understand why you are so upset aerius, they are at school to learn, not to make snowballs, big or small.
People don't seem to realize how many things are privileges and it is well within the schools rights to remove them as they see fit. Don't get mad at the school for protecting itself, instead get mad at the kids who screwed it up for everyone at that school.

Technically you're right. Technically they can lock the kids in the classroom all day and make them learn stuff. Problem is if you do all this you're going to end up with really unbalanced and potentially fucked up kids. Back when I was in school we had a simple system. When some kid does something dumb like throwing ice at others, the school has a nice talk with him & his parents and then they take action as needed. None of this banning banning snowball fights for the entire school because one kid decided to be a jackass, the jackass gets dealt with and life goes on.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-12-18 03:57pm

back when you were in school, parents were probably more receptive to teachers and more responsible for disciplining their children. Something that has obviously changed since then....

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2003-12-18 04:02pm

one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2003-12-18 04:45pm

Darth_Zod wrote:one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?

Most kids these days are idiots, so there's a huge amount of ways it could have happened. Maybe they thought it would be cool to squish him?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2003-12-18 04:49pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Darth_Zod wrote:one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?
Most kids these days are idiots, so there's a huge amount of ways it could have happened. Maybe they thought it would be cool to squish him?

if they did it on purpose then it couldn't very well qualify as accidental.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2003-12-18 05:09pm

Darth_Zod wrote:
Sharp-kun wrote:
Darth_Zod wrote:one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?
Most kids these days are idiots, so there's a huge amount of ways it could have happened. Maybe they thought it would be cool to squish him?
if they did it on purpose then it couldn't very well qualify as accidental.

Could still be, the fact that they couldn't roll it off could be the accident.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2003-12-18 07:20pm

Darth_Zod wrote:one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?

I don't think they specifically mentioned exactly how it happened. The snowball was in the middle of a flat field so it wasn't like in the cartoons where Daffy Duck gets run over & rolled up in a snowball. Now if you've rolled big snowballs you know that they don't roll smoothly, you gotta strain real hard to budge it and then it'll "tip" and roll a few feet before stopping, and then you gotta strain to get it moving again. Sometimes you can't get it moving so you end up "rocking" it to get enough momentum for it to roll over. It looks like the snowball got big enough so that several kids had to push at the same time to roll it, and I'm guessing one poor kid slipped and got pinned when the snowball tipped or the they were "rocking" the snowball and it rolled back and flattened the kid.

Korvan · Post by **Korvan** » 2003-12-18 08:05pm

Darth_Zod wrote:one thing that bugs me about this. . . .how do you 'accidentally' get squished by a snowball? was the kid at the bottom of a hill and didn't see it coming or something?

That's just about exactly what happend to me when I was around 10. In a subdivision where a friend of mine lived, was a vacent lot that had a very steep hill that sloped down from the road. During the winter, all of the snow from the subdivisions roads was dumped down this hill creating the ultimate environment for snow tunnels.

One day, while digging tunnels, we heard a low rumbling noise and exited our tunnel just in time to see a large front loader dump its load of snow in the form of a coiled cylinder about 12 ft long and 6ft in diameter. (like a giant snow log cake)

We took off running down the hill with the snow log at our heels. I tripped halfway down and was crushed into the snow as the log passed over me. Fortunatly, as the hill was still steep, the log kept on rolling. As the snow was deep, I was just buried rather than truely crushed. My friend and I were laughing our heads off when the operater appeared.

The poor operater had just seen us appear on the slope as he released his load, and nearly suffered a heart attack. We got a safety lecture, but didn't really get into any trouble.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2003-12-19 07:33am

When I was in third grade, me and one of my friends started rolling a big snowball. We rolled it during the breaks. By the end of the day, it was so huge that even ten kids couldn't move. It must have been around 2 metres thick or something. I wouldn't want to be crushed by that one

. But rolling it sure was fun. And it didn't melt until April

. Some jerks tried to ruin it, but they couldn't even make a dent in it! Hah!

And we had a special place where we were allowed to have snowball figths, so those that didn't want to fight didn't have to. We had a fight with some of our teachers one time. That was fun as hell.

But I don't think they should ban these things. Sure, a lot of it is dangerous, but you can't ban it because of that. Soccer and football is really dangerous too, and a friend broke his arm playing softball (you could almost hear the crack

). But no-one wants to ban that because playing softball is fun, and you're supposed to have fun when you're a kid! If kids aren't allowed to do anything in the snow, then they won't be out in it and stay indoors instead. And if you stay indoors for a whole schoolday you will get really tired by the end of the day. You need the fresh air.

With that said, children should always have a teacher or someone looking after them, making sure they don't do anything overly foolish.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2003-12-19 12:45pm

Dooey Jo wrote:And we had a special place where we were allowed to have snowball figths, so those that didn't want to fight didn't have to. We had a fight with some of our teachers one time. That was fun as hell.

We called that special place a field.

Anyone on the field could have a snowball thrown at them, and if you didn't want to get hit you stayed on the paved area of the schoolyard. Even girls like myself got into the big snowball fights, and on some days we'd have the entire student population form up into teams out on the field and have huge snowball wars with each other.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-12-19 03:09pm

Dooey Jo wrote:*snip*
But I don't think they should ban these things. Sure, a lot of it is dangerous, but you can't ban it because of that. Soccer and football is really dangerous too, and a friend broke his arm playing softball (you could almost hear the crack ). But no-one wants to ban that because playing softball is fun, and you're supposed to have fun when you're a kid! If kids aren't allowed to do anything in the snow, then they won't be out in it and stay indoors instead. And if you stay indoors for a whole schoolday you will get really tired by the end of the day. You need the fresh air.

there is a huge difference between organized sports and a group of kids just rolling up huge snow boulders. One adult supersion/coaching and has rules and regulations to make it safer the other does not.

With that said, children should always have a teacher or someone looking after them, making sure they don't do anything overly foolish.

Teachers cannot always watch every child at every moment, children can disappear around corners and in large groups you cannot see what each child is doing all the time. I am not saying that the kids don't need supervision because they do, but even that is not 100% fullproof against accidents.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2003-12-20 11:53am

Death from the Sea wrote:there is a huge difference between organized sports and a group of kids just rolling up huge snow boulders. One adult supersion/coaching and has rules and regulations to make it safer the other does not.

Heh, I wouldn't call the sports at my old school "organized"... But I meant kids playing soccer or some other sport during their breaks, not the "serious" versions of the sports.

Teachers cannot always watch every child at every moment, children can disappear around corners and in large groups you cannot see what each child is doing all the time. I am not saying that the kids don't need supervision because they do, but even that is not 100% fullproof against accidents.

I know, but the only way to make sure absolutely no accidents happen in school would be to chain the children to their desks or something, and that wouldn't be 100 % either. They could trip and fall when they walk out of the classroom.
Anyway, a 100 % safe world would most likely be a very boring world. (please don't interpret that as if I somehow like it when accidents happen)

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-12-21 01:03am

aerius wrote:They were saying it was about 5-6' in diameter and weighed roughly 1000 pounds, but I have serious doubts about the weight. A snowball of that size with the snow we had on the ground would 1/3 to 1/2 that at most.

Well okay, if the kids are rolling half-ton snow boulders I can understand the school just outright banning the practice after one almost kills somebody.