City school board bans hats from basketball games
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — Hats off to the city school board — at least during basketball games.
Board members voted Tuesday to ban hats from all basketball games at Austin and Decatur high school games this season.
Superintendent Sam Houston said a committee discussed banning gang-related headwear, but the board decided instead to ban all hats from games.
"It's a judgment call on what's appropriate and what's not appropriate, so we thought it was best to not allow any," Houston said.
Decatur High Principal Mike Ward said the rule is a return to the days when men didn't wear caps in a building.
"You can't distinguish between what kind of hat a person wears or that it's tilted in a certain way," Ward said. "Taking it off is a very easy way to regulate this problem."
The school board approved a $1 admission increase to $5 to offset the cost of doubling the number of security guards at games from two to four officers. The city's two high school gymnasiums hold about 1,200 people each.
Well, see, the problem is trying to find an "easy way" to regulate a problem. Doing something the "easy way" as described above--a blanket restriction based entirely upon appearances--requires little thought, and as such, is rarely effective at getting the desired results.
You say you're too friggin stupid to figure out who the troublemakers are, and somehow you think that if you can't figure out all those wack cap-tilt codes, people intent on causing trouble can't find ANOTHER way to signal their intentions!?
Look ANYthing can be turned into a symbol--maybe the precious little dears will start wearing two different color shoes. Maybe they'll have on a shirt with one sleeve rolled up. Maybe they'll just come in and start a fight.
You want to know how to solve this?
Quit trying to be politically correct, and come down hard on anyone who starts a fight. Likewise, if your precious little snoogums decides to engage in a little turf battle, don't run to the television station and complain that he's being mistreated. Expect people to be decent and have fun, and then don't tolerate misbehavior by the ones intent on doing wrong.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 15, 2006 11:15 AMMaybe everyone should just go to the games naked. It worked for the ancient Greeks, right?
Posted by: Jordana at November 15, 2006 12:52 PMI think that was just for the athletes, not the spectators. However, pretty soon you're going to have to go through airport security naked, so maybe it would be best to go ahead and and make it that way for any public gathering.
Of course, then we'll have a problem with all those ancient Greeks trying to get in.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at November 15, 2006 01:02 PM