School Administration - Halo 3

So I will try to keep this short - my team knows me for long-winded emails.

Based upon the success of our own in-team game nights, and other teams’ efforts at gaming based fundraisers, we decided to morph our informal nights of Super Smash Brothers into a full scale Epic Video Game Extravaganzafest (search for it on facebook - thats the actual name). Of course, we also decided that Halo 3 was by far the most popular game around today, and no event would be complete without a full tournament. Currently, we are in the process of getting administrative approval specifically to allow us to have M-rated content, because that is the main issue, and Halo 3 is the only drawback. Here’s what we have already planned to appease the administration and parents:

  • Police Officer(s) on site at event (They wanted to play)
  • Lots of Teachers chaperoning the event (They really wanted to play)
  • Every student must have a signed parental permission slip to get in (OK, so the parents don’t want to play as much as the first two bullet points)
  • Alumni of SWHS and Bobcat Robotics would have to present a student ID & Driver’s License

As confident as I can be that I sold the concept of NHS hours, money for more of our team to go to (Inter)Nationals, and generally an epic night of tons of fun to my principal, he further liked my plan of getting in contact with other schools who have done this. And so I turn to CD. I already PM’d team 701’s mentor, Doug, who was responsible for their Halo tournament, as well as a few other people, but I wanted to get as many contacts as I could of people who have pulled off M-rated content. So, If you, your team, or a team you know of has successfully tackled the M-rated problem presented by a school bureaucracy, please get in contact with me. It would be best to reach me at bobcatrobotics@gmail.com, because I bet I’m not supposed to post my principals email address here. If anyone (preferably adults, I’m sure you understand), has a story to tell, it would be extremely helpful.

Thanks,
Chris Marra
(psst. I hear there is a new TBA episode coming out soon, even if it is not quite the holiday special style I was hoping for (stop after 1:30 to keep it G-rated))

Our school has never really had a problem with the whole M-rated thing. My team has never tried a game night but our school has an gaming club with xbox’s and copies of halo paid for by the club. We’re in the library every Thursday and usually the most popular games that are being played are games like Halo and Gears of War. Its open door. I don’t know if the issue has been tackled at our school or if the administration just doesn’t realize that these games hold these ratings but we’ve been playing these games since the gaming club was founded long before I attended NHS.

-Don

We’ve held a couple Halo 2 competitions at our school in the past… I’m pretty sure the school didn’t have a problem with it. Is Halo 2 rated M? I don’t even know. I never looked… Ehh… That probably didn’t help at all. But, if you want me to look into it further, I’ll let you know how we went about organizing the whole thing…