Back To School

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

Well, the summer is now over, and school has now commenced again. You can smell the cafeteria's signature poutine, you can hear the ring of school bells as students rush to their next class, you can see the graphite leave its mark as your pencil flows across the page, and if you pay close attention, you can feel a jock's fist slam into your face. Just thought I'd make a thread about some interesting occurrences that have happened in my school in just the first three days, some of which are outrageous and make me almost ashamed of my school.

I'll start with a funny story that I only know of due to two short announcements over the school's speakers, which leaves a lot to speculation. While I was in my history class, an announcement came on informing the listeners that someone had been sending school staff messages, urging any teachers that have classes in the computer lab to make sure these messages stop, also advising everyone who received the message not to read it. Only a minute later, a second announcement was aired, telling people to ignore the first announcement as it turns out these messages came from another school and had been sent to staff across the whole school district. This left the content of the message and the identity of the person who sent it up to speculation for us students.

Now, for a sports related part of the post. The school has (as usual) been releasing propaganda advising people to join the football team, almost sending a message against non-athletes. There have been commercials over the announcements asking people if they are sick of their life because they aren't doing anything other than staying home, so it then suggests to become "Bigger, better, faster and stronger" by joining the male football team. Also, at an assembly to recognize the start of the new school year, one of the school's PE teachers came up to speak about how everyone should join sports teams and how if you didn't join one last year, it is best for you to join this year. He pretty much called non-athletes losers who don't contribute to society and have no future. What a pleasant gesture for the start of the year.

I'll finish off this post with a terrible, gruesome story. I can't say it's sports related to my knowledge, however I can easily say it is related to social class. Yesterday, during my lunch break, me and my friends were walking to the nearby plaza to get some food when we saw the principal running through the halls telling everyone to move out of the way, followed by several other school staff. I noticed there were plenty of police outside of the school. I didn't find out about what this was all for until later on, when I was told by a friend that one person got in a fight with twenty people. When I asked why these twenty people ganged up on one person, he just said that it was the prep's idea of entertainment (the preps are the people who are popular and wear colourful clothes, etc.). Today, I found out more about it from another person. Apparently, a guy walked past a group of people. This group of people started calling him names and insulting him. This person then went up to one member of the group specifically, who was on crutches, and punched him in the face a few times. When this happened, a bunch of the people from the group jumped on him and started beating on him. Eventually, there were apparently thirty people on top of the guy, beating on him. In the end, the individual person had several broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken jaw, countless other broken bones and injuries, and also had facial piercings which were torn from his face, which I imagine isn't a pleasant experience. I think all of the people in the group that attacked him were suspended, I imagine the individual person would also be suspended, however I suppose that would be pointless because I'm pretty sure he's in the hospital and isn't in the condition to return to school. I know that the guy on crutches wasn't suspended, because I saw him in school today. I can safely say that everyone involved in the story was wrong. The group who bullied the individual was wrong for calling him names, the individual was wrong for specifically targeting someone who is disabled and using crutches (although he certainly did not deserve the beating he received), and again, the group was wrong for being cowardly enough to need 30 people just to fight one person. Even the guy on crutches was wrong because he was part of the group who was insulting the individual. The whole thing disgusts me, and I can't believe people did what they did. I imagine the people who weren't participating were even cheering the fight on, as happens with all fights, I've even been ridiculed for breaking up fights. People think of it as entertainment, and most people just cheer it on and video tape it. I hate the sound of the chanting of "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!". I can't believe I'm part of the same species as these people.

Anyway, those are my stories from simply the first three days of school (actually, all of those happened or began on either the first or second day of school, I just found out more information on the fight today). I can tell this will be an interesting year.

[Safety]

School for me started two weeks ago from yesterday. I go to a small vocational school in a very rural part of Ohio. It's pretty laid back, there are only a few fights a year and nobody ever gets seriously injured when those fights occur. I have about 10-12 other students in all of my classes except for Government. I'm taking the ACT in two days, and I'm excited to hurry up and get passed High School so I can move on to the next step in my life.

[Earl]

Now, for a sports related part of the post. The school has (as usual) been releasing propaganda advising people to join the football team, almost sending a message against non-athletes. There have been commercials over the announcements asking people if they are sick of their life because they aren't doing anything other than staying home, so it then suggests to become "Bigger, better, faster and stronger" by joining the male football team. Also, at an assembly to recognize the start of the new school year, one of the school's PE teachers came up to speak about how everyone should join sports teams and how if you didn't join one last year, it is best for you to join this year. He pretty much called non-athletes losers who don't contribute to society and have no future. What a pleasant gesture for the start of the year.

To any reader of this post who is objective and fair-minded: Notice the pathetic attitude of the P.E. teacher calling nonathletes "losers who don't contribute to society and have no future." To begin with, is this a true statement; or is it patently false? Is this the right sort of attitude that a teacher should have towards other students at the school where he is employed? Do comments like this contribute to harmony between athletic and nonathletic students on this high-school campus; or do they, in fact, encourage discord and conflict (if not, eventually, bullying)? Do you understand now why this website exists? Would any sportswriter or sports columnist ever point out such a sorry attitude on the part of a high-school coach? The answer is obvious.

I'm sorry, HugeFan, that you have to put up with this. You should be allowed to chose an exercise regimen as an alternative to being forced to participate in a sport.

To the objective reader again: Do you see one of the reasons, as evidenced here in this situation, why mandatory "sports only" P.E. should be reformed?

[Jerry McGuire]

To any reader of this post who is objective and fair-minded: Notice the pathetic attitude of the P.E. teacher calling nonathletes "losers who don't contribute to society and have no future."

Agreed, however, notice how that is not exactly what he said. HugefanofBadReligion said "he pretty much said". This implies that he is paraphrasing based on his perception of what he said. Sometimes I hear people say one thing, and interpret it as another. This could be the case. If not, that teacher's comments were uncalled for.

[Earl]

To any reader of this post who is objective and fair-minded: Notice the pathetic attitude of the P.E. teacher calling nonathletes "losers who don't contribute to society and have no future."

Agreed, however, notice how that is not exactly what he said. HugefanofBadReligion said "he pretty much said". This implies that he is paraphrasing based on his perception of what he said. Sometimes I hear people say one thing, and interpret it as another. This could be the case. If not, that teacher's comments were uncalled for.

You're absolutely right. Thanks for calling my attention to this. While I was typing up my reply, it didn't occur to me that using quotation marks to quote HugeFan's paraphrasing had the effect of attributing those exact words to the coach, which is an inaccuracy. I certainly have heard someone say one thing and misinterpret it as another. I guess we all have.

On the other hand, this is not the first time that HugeFan has encountered a coach at his high school who had a sorry attitude. The sad fact is that some, if not many, boys' P.E. coaches are afflicted with machismo and therefore look down on nonathletic boys as supposedly being inferior, which is a false view. I respect the work that coaches do, but I have no respect for those who engage in that form of prejudice. It's inexcusable. I don't see this attitude of looking down on certain categories of students as often among teachers of other subjects. My wife was a high-school math teacher for eleven years. She never looked down on students who struggled with math. She was sympathetic to them and was always willing to tutor any student. The only students she disliked were those who tried to disrupt her classes. Anyway, thanks for not denying the point I was trying to make, despite my misuse of the quotation marks.

[i_like_1981]

Any school that urges students to favour competitive sports over academics is obviously a bad school. Your school sounds a pretty bad one for an academic with no interest in sports to go to, HugeFanOfBadReligion, if they're trying to force everyone to participate in sports including those who really just come there to learn and not play games which can just as easily be played outside of school. I can understand them wanting to keep PE in the curriculum what with all today's concerns about people getting lazier, but the fact stands that a school is a learning environment. A place where academics come to shine and earn their qualifications which will help them in later life, and the school are neglecting that purpose by putting too strong an emphasis on sports participation. And your story of the beating... that sounds even worse than what happened at my school. I heard of people ganging up on and assaulting others but never as many as 30 attacking one person. That sounds downright outrageous and the student who had to suffer that beating has every reason to switch school and file charges against the attackers. 30 on one is just disgraceful. And the fact that guy was on crutches did not give him a legitimate reason to insult another student for no reason and expect no retribution. I feel sorry for you, HugeFanOfBadReligion. It isn't really that long ago when I was all nervous and anxious about returning to school for another year of trying to get on with the work whilst putting up with a ton of undeserved crap. But don't worry, it WILL end eventually, and hopefully in the end you'll be able to say that you gained from your time at school and didn't let scores of idiots damage your future.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[The Imperialist]

Hats off to the person who was brave enough to hold off 30 people. (With a few sacrifices made.. but then, that is the nature of the struggle)

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

HugefanofBadReligion said "he pretty much said". This implies that he is paraphrasing based on his perception of what he said. Sometimes I hear people say one thing, and interpret it as another. This could be the case. If not, that teacher's comments were uncalled for.

The teacher did use the term "loser". I used the phrase "pretty much said" to state that I am summarizing what he said. I'll try to quote what he said to the best of my memory: "You should stop being a loser not doing anything and join one of our many sports teams". He didn't specifically direct that to anybody, but towards people who don't play sports.

Also, another addition. Today, my history class (probably my favourite course this semester because it is my favourite era of history, the 20th century) was interrupted by an assembly promoting the participation in school groups, and it was generally called the athletic assembly. They mentioned that they have groups of all kinds, yet they didn't list one single school group (such as jazz band, concert band, etc.) that wasn't based on sports, even though there are countless non-athletic groups in the school. They just focused on sports. They also stated (they didn't say could, they said will) that participating sports will make you more successful in your classes (maybe that's because teachers let athletes off easy) and will give you a healthy body and mind. Ironically, they also stated that one of the benefits of joining sports teams was that you get to miss class often for practices and games. There were countless other contradictions that I won't list.

[The Imperialist]

Playing sports doesn't necessarily make you better and subjects. It MAY just let off some steam. I do fencing (all the slashing and attacking- how wonderful- I do sabre by the way), but I can say that it is not bringing up my grades in any visible way.

THE SPIRIT OF THE ONE AGAINST A HUNDRED! THE DEATH FRENZY!

Oh well.

[i_like_1981]

Hats off to the person who was brave enough to hold off 30 people. (With a few sacrifices made.. but then, that is the nature of the struggle)

Erm... I don't think he held them off as such. He was sent to hospital by them, and I'm not surprised. That's the equivalent of a whole high school class turning on one person. I feel real sympathy for the unfortunate person who was so savagely beaten by such a great number of your attackers.

I guess in situations like this where it's 30 assailants against one victim, your method of "making the weak stronger" won't really make much difference when the going gets tough, eh Imperialist? There's only so much good making someone "stronger" will do. Perhaps they'll be able to take on one of the bullies but what about two, three, four, or in this case, 30 of them? Sometimes these problems can't be solved in any other way than transferring the victimised student to home-schooling.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

Hats off to the person who was brave enough to hold off 30 people. (With a few sacrifices made.. but then, that is the nature of the struggle)

Actually, to be honest, other than the guy on crutches who was attacked before the whole group went on the guy, I don't think anybody took a single hit in the group of 30. He was just knocked to the ground immediately (I think it started off with 15 people, and after he was on the ground, eventually there were 30 people on him) and the rest was just beating him while he was on the ground being crushed and pounded by 30 people.

[The Imperialist]

Hmm...

Make them strong enough so they can counter an attack by a whole platoon? THE SPIRIT OF THE ONE AGAINST A HUNDRED!

At the least (from what I am assuming,) he did not give in as such (I hope he did not say 'PLease forgive me' because that is just pathetic. There are more honourable ways of surrendering). As long as one goes down kicking... if not, then at the least, right is on the poor chap's side. (The person wearing crutches is an idiot... why bully someone when obviously, you are in a weaker stance? Besides in warfare, if you are confronted by a larger enemy, it is common practice to destroy the weaker part. And, as the group wanted to go all out on words, it would be insulting if the person did not fight back all out).

[i_like_1981]

The person wearing crutches is an idiot... why bully someone when obviously, you are in a weaker stance?

I think he felt sure that the victim would not choose to lash out at him specifically because the other bullies would obviously use it to their advantage to make their target look like the real villain of the piece if he was to attack somebody who is disabled. You know how bullies are. The minute they notice an imperfection in their target, they will milk it for all it's worth. I'm surprised that the victim would have attacked the guy on crutches because that obviously is the thing that would bring the most heat on him, but maybe he wanted to tell the guy on crutches that being partially disabled did not give him a right to use the disability to lord himself over other people and consider himself above any retaliation. I don't know. Overall, I have far less respect for the attackers, because 30 of them battering the same person is sheepish behaviour in its very, very lowest form.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[The Imperialist]

If I was that person, I would have stolen his crutches and used it as a weapon... stealing the crutches effectively disables the disabled person as a useful combatant, and the crutches give an advantage to you in terms of striking power and distance.

But may that person recuperate and get back to his student duties...

[i_like_1981]

If I was that person, I would have stolen his crutches and used it as a weapon... stealing the crutches effectively disables the disabled person as a useful combatant, and the crutches give an advantage to you in terms of striking power and distance.

But may that person recuperate and get back to his student duties...

I probably would condone that sort of reaction if one was being threatened and humiliated by a group of 30. I mean, that number against one person... it's extremely unfair. Allowing the single intimidated presence to possess some sort of attacking tool would make things a bit more fair. And being temporarily or permanently disabled in any way does not give you a right to think that you're above being insulted or attacked by people in retaliation to obnoxious behaviour. He was using his disability as a way of saying "Oh, I can insult him as much as I want and he can't attack me because I'm disabled and that would make him a really harsh bastard!" and personally, he got what was coming to him. Having a disability does not give one the right to think they can harass another person and consider themselves above any retribution.

Best regards,
i_like_1981