James Tate won’t miss much if he doesn’t go to the Shelton High senior prom. Chances are, the dance will be lousy with the kind of neolithic deans and administrators who crush imagination and romanticism and with whom he might have to trade phony pleasantries. As it is, he’s leaving the place a smoldering ruin, a target of international ridicule. That’s the best revenge. And no one has been physically hurt.
The Blogster remembers another young man, Clarence Jackson, who was a day late in finally finding a multi-million-dollar lottery ticket. Over the years, attempts by the Legislature to “give the kid the money” have failed. Actually, the Blogster is wondering: If the General Assembly gets into the act to help Tate, the resulting law may not only force Shelton High to buy his tux and rent the limo, but will include a giveback to Jackson, too. Hey, it could happen.
Let’s shift this story by just a bit: The boy decides to put his invitation on the wall of the school. The school is a closed campus, but he manages to find a way in. As he is putting the sign up, he loses his balance and the ladder collapses, dropping him to the ground, and causing physical injury.
Does anyone doubt that his family would have sued the school and Town of Shelton for damages?
Does this reversal encourage others to act similarly and expose themselves to the risk of injury?
How would we feel if someone used our home to paste up a similar sign?
The school may not have acted wisely in applying the punishment, but one of the things we should be teaching children in school is that there are rules in life, and there are consequences for breaking them.
Excellent Point. A poor young man actually wins the lottery and because he is late by three days…he loses 6 million dollars..No justice..just the same ol lunacy…Give the kid the money…