[SCA-AE] New A&S Policy at Pennsic

[Jason Butt]

I think the bottom line that is trying to be made is that if you are a parent and bring your kids to an event, like Pennsic, you are responsible for them.  The classes are not daycare centers and the teachers are not babysitters.  They are there to teach a class they care about and not supervise your kids.  I understand the other arguments being made and agree that the policy needs clarification, but let's try to focus on the intent, not the wording.







-----Original Message-----
From: Eric France <de_labarre at yahoo.com>
To: discussion at aethelmearc.org
Sent: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 4:39 pm
Subject: Re: [SCA-AE] New A&S Policy at Pennsic


> My question is this: do we really want to send  teen-agers the message that 
instead of speaking out against an insulting   tyrannical rule that makes no 
sense whatsoever and has created far more  problems  (to such an extant that I 
have heard but have no means to confirm that  the  Pennsic mayor has received 
threatening emails) than it could possibly  prevent.
"Tyrannical", Mick? Hyperbolic much?
Once again: this rule was not instituted to screw teenagers or their parents. It 
was certainly not instituted to police A&S class content. 

his rule was instituted so that there would be a way for minors to continue to 
ttend A&S classes while adhering to the new rules about supervisory 
nteractions between staff and  minors at events -- rules that are to be applied 
across the entire Pennsic staff structure.
These new rules are in response to the changing legal climate since the Ben the 
teward incident. There is more to it than just that, but like many others I'm 
ot at liberty to go into gory details (and I'm not the right person to do so). 
ut if you think about it for a moment, these rules, if followed by everyone, 
ill make such a situation essentially impossible in the future. 

f *course* its sounds ridiculous if you're talking about a 240 lb 17-year-old 
oy who's authorized for heavy list. Wisdom and responsibility aren't magically 
estowed on the 18th birthday, but LEGALLY it makes a huge difference. How will 
he kids feel about it? Well if their parents tell them that its a vast BOD 
onspiracy to make their lives suck, they'll probably believe that. Or, if we 
ell them that its to protect them from predators, well they might believe that 
oo. I don't know.
There is a really good compromise that has been approved -- any responsible 
dult can accompany a minor to a class. In my view, that makes all the 
elf-righteous indignation about what is basically a question of convenience 
ook like foolish puffery.

here has been a lot of very harsh criticism of the Pennsic staff on this list 
and on the Thescorre list), which in my view is totally unwarranted. Pennsic 
taffers, particularly the Mayor and DMs and section heads, VOLUNTEER an 
normous amount of time and energy trying to make Pennsic a great event for 
verybody. If you don't like how things are being run, maybe you should 
olunteer to work on staff yourself next year -- the change in viewpoint might 
e educational.
Eric
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