I have to agree that swearing at someone is unnecessary and only reflects ignorance on your part. However I do think swearing has its place. It can be used to make an environment feel less formal, and actually more inviting. Also when used in certain contexts and sparingly it certainly can aid in humor (especially when you're not expecting it). I think swearing can help lighten the tone when people tend to take themselves a bit too seriously (FIRST definitely having that vibe from time to time). Also I think there is an age appropriateness that comes into context. Swearing in front of freshman has a very different effect than swearing in front of seniors.
I would point towards Gary Vaynerchuck, Cee Lo Green, and the immi-children's book "go the f*** to sleep" as two examples where swearing is used effectively.
Basically swearing is like a lot of other things, if you're not smiling when you're doing it, its probably wrong.
To anyone who swears at another out of anger, "You don't ****ing know what you're doing"
A more serious question, if someone acts like that on a team, and brings them down and refuses to change, should a team and FIRST abandon that individual simply because they do not approve of their behavior. I think this reflects juvenile detention methods to an extent, where it is not so much about rehabilitation but rather punishment. By FIRST outright saying that it punishes a whole team because of one individual's words, is it in a way saying that we should abandon those who pose similar risks to our teams, to further our own chances. I think there are some real dangers in conveying a message like that. The fact is teams cannot control how everyone is going to react to a situation, and the only way to outright avoid a situation like this is to ban anyone who may act like that from a team. The kid was an idiot, I don't disagree, but I think that a team's GP is not directly linked to a single action by a single individual. Maybe its just me but FIRST members are not members of a utopian society, we all have flaws, and we all know there are members on our teams that pose a risk. But I would much rather have those people on my team than to win an award, because I know the effect FIRST has on those individuals is much more valuable than any award.