SCHOOL CLOSINGS !

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

In one well publisized and discussed instance in 2007 we had school cancelled on the Friday of the Connecticut regional, The kids prents drove them to the event and we were competing until the Superintendent of schools found out the kids were there and sent a message that if the kids continued to participate they would be suspended. At least one other team has this issue as well. To prevent our kids from getting in trouble we borrowed the drive team from our friends Aces High to finish our matches for the day without getting DQ's and hurting our alliance partners.

If this were my team, I would not have pulled the students for 2 reasons:

1) Their own parents drove them there. They're not technically there under school supervision, and therefore, its not the school's problem.

2) I would have let the students continue to compete, as that's what they spent 6 weeks preparing for, and its not fair to deprive them of that. I would argue with the school board about the asininity of their call later, and make sure the students didn't get into trouble.

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

If this were my team, I would not have pulled the students for 2 reasons:

1) Their own parents drove them there. They're not technically there under school supervision, and therefore, its not the school's problem.

2) I would have let the students continue to compete, as that's what they spent 6 weeks preparing for, and its not fair to deprive them of that. I would argue with the school board about the asininity of their call later, and make sure the students didn't get into trouble.

It's nice to say that and we argued that as well at the time, but here are the facts:
1.) It is a school santioned extracurrullar event, and we live in litigation happy society so the school wants to cover it's butt in case anyone got into an accident going. The field trip was officially cancelled with school that day and therefore the were insurance issues with the stidents getting covered for injury at the event.

2.)It was a new superintendent of schools who didn't have an appreciation for the situation, of what the students did to get to this point. We were concerned he might try to retalliate against the teachers, and we could not get in touch with school board mentors in time that day, so in order to protect the teachers from retaliation we complied. The following week the school board did some dammage control for us, but we could not guarantee their buy in until after 5 pm on that Friday.

It's easy to say how you would act in this situation, but given the circumstances, and I'm not listing everything here, letting the students participate was not something that we could do.

[Racer26]

Hey, fair enough, I wasn't there, obviously. Just given the information I was, thats what I would have done. If there were other factors playing into the decisions, thats ok, and obviously it can't be changed now. I just hate it when school boards, etc, stick their nose into the teams business without realizing the repercussions of their decisions. I know I got upset with our school board in our rookie year (2003) when we had a shot at going to championships then (in Houston), and they said we couldn't cross the border. We've since gone to 6 offseasons south of the border (2007/2008/2009 Kettering Kickoff (Flint, MI) and Brunswick Eruption (North Brunswick, NJ)), and this year we're registered for the 2010 Championship Event.

EDIT: I am always one to stand up for what I believe in, and worry about getting other people to see things my way later. Sometimes this helps me, other times it hurts me. Take it for what it is; who I am.

[BrendanB]

If you don't have access to the school, you can always work on website, awards, creating detailed lists of what needs to be done, or even just eat dinner for once with the family (it really is fun! )

And really try to push to gain access to the school in future events, you really don't want the school closed the week before ship and no way to get in.

Good luck!

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

If this were my team, I would not have pulled the students for 2 reasons:

1) Their own parents drove them there. They're not technically there under school supervision, and therefore, its not the school's problem.

2) I would have let the students continue to compete, as that's what they spent 6 weeks preparing for, and its not fair to deprive them of that. I would argue with the school board about the asininity of their call later, and make sure the students didn't get into trouble.

The trouble is, that's a harder call for a teacher to make, because the superintendent is their superior in the school board's hierarchy. They risk retribution through their employer for failing to comply.

One of the most troublesome things with extracurricular activities—having participated in the process of organizing them several times—is the need to define who is responsible for the activity, to the satisfaction of all of the stakeholders. If the parents drop the kids off at a regional, is that implicit consent for their participation (even if no form was signed)? What if the school board refuses to permit the school-based team from participating, but the students and teacher want to attend anyway; does the school have the right—ethically and legally—to prevent this? Should FIRST/the regional committee allow these "rogue team members" to participate without the backing of the school (which presumably owns the robot)? And what if the local regional committee is organized using some of the (physical and human) resources of that same school board? And of course, who's liable when something goes wrong? (I have the irrational urge to draft indemnification papers for the non-teacher mentors, and make the students and their parents sign them...in theory, that could be useful if a parent goes litigiously crazy when their child gets hurt.)