Snow Job: Students Suspended For Snowball Fight

Commenter Kaui Mark brings to our attention this episode from the Weird Little EduWorld that is Southern California:

Two Ramona High School students were suspended for bringing dangerous objects to school — snowballs.

Seniors Michael Sepulveda and Daniel Zavala, the snowball co-conspirators, made a pre-dawn run to the San Bernardino Mountains to fill their pickup trucks with snow and bring it to school for what they hoped would turn into an annual "bring Big Bear to Riverside" ritual.

They were suspended after a school parking lot snowball fight before the start of classes Thursday.

Principal Mike Neece said one of his most important responsibilities is maintaining a safe, orderly learning environment.

"Anything that disturbs that or disrupts that is inappropriate on a school campus," Neece said. "Anything that could cause injury, or could cause a student to get upset and instigate a fight, or damage students' personal property is just inappropriate behavior."

Zavala and Sepulveda were stunned.

"The school overdid it. In the handbook it does not say, 'Do not bring snow to school,'" Zavala said Thursday afternoon.

"It's snow," Sepulveda said.

Savala's mother Martha Valdez called the boys' actions "harmless" but said she supported the decision by school officials.

"They're still there to mandate the rules, and they have to draw the line somewhere."

As I grew-up in central Florida, my childhood experience with snow was very limited. We used unripened oranges instead of snowballs and sheltered ourselves from attack in "forts" that were constructed with wooden packing crates. ----------------------------------See our latest education-related posts right here.