Appropriate penalties for off-the-field ethical/behavioral violations

[Mike Ciance]

Originally Posted by Aignam

Lest we forget that some joined FIRST to experience something unlike anything else---a competition without that brutal contact sport-esque competetiveness. Cheating undermines the entire concept of FIRST. How can you defend cheaters---the antithesis of this organization? There's nothing inspirational about cheating, there's nothing gracious about cheating...Sure, extremely harsh penalties may seem out of place in FIRST...but we're all about preparation for the real world, aren't we? And in the real world, real cheating has bigger, harsher consequences. I think getting disqualified would be a better lesson than learning that you can get away with anything if you play your cards right. We're fostering science and technology, not white-collar crimes.

well as i said in an earlier post, teams who often break rules should recieve stricter penalties. mild punishments dont encourage cheating, but hars punishments discourage participation and learning. if a team learns it's lesson from a mild punishment, i see no reason why any more action should be taken. i am sure that for most teams the sheer loss of pride that a discovered rulebreaking would cause would be enough in itself to encourage reform. like a few have said, there are some situations in which a minor rule-breaking can make the difference between a team having a normal season and a team not having a season at all. surely no more than a chastizement should be given for situations such as these. like i said, we need to consider how much of a problem the cheating actually causes.