[Ted Boucher]

A penalty of this kind is very hard to make and it would probably have to be one of the harshest penalties in FIRST.

If you bar a team from a years worth of competition, this would be the exact opposite some of the principles of FIRST. The team might lose their sponsorship, and the kids would leave the team since they would not be inspired of the FIRST competition.

An appropriate penalty would be disqualifying the team from that particular event. This would only be blocking the team’s robot from competing from the event and they could still be inspired by the action of the competition. They would be ranked at that competition as dead last with a record of no rounds completed at all. Though the awards that do not relate to how the robot competes, i.e. the website and animation awards, should be allowed to compete for an award. This would still give the team some pride in what they have accomplished and keeping them inspired in FIRST. This team should then be allowed to attend any other competitions if they want to. During these competitions they should be kept under close watch so they do not break the rule again. If they do so, then they should be banned for the rest of the season and receiving absolutely no awards for that competition. They then would be given a “Homework Assignment” of reflecting on what they did wrong and what they should not do next year.

I would really hate to see this happen to any team, even knowing what they did wrong. FIRST should also focus on prevention of this happening by making a stricter inspection at the robot check in and FIRST officials sealing the pits off at the end of the day so only people can get out without any robot parts with them.