My school : Cracking down on "Hacky-Sack".

t1337dude · Post by **t1337dude** » 31 Mar 2006 16:43

I introduced footbag into my school a few months back. In a way, it was a hit. I wasn't skilled in the least when I brought it in, and me and my friends are progessing at a steady rate. All my friends involved now even have their own lavers. Two meshes (Me and a friend for some reason unwilling to modify his shoes), and one leather (Modded). Actually, there are 4 more involved, but they aren't as serious and have gotten new shoes for it, just not lavers.

We play in the morning, between each period, skip eating lunch and go right to playing, and play after school and during our last periods. The school has took notice and fealt need to cut it out. Why? No reason provided. Not one. What crap.

In the morning, we play in a hallway that used to be the least supervised. Now the principal himself patrols our hallway every 3 minutes in the morning, and during lunch (During Lunch, the Hallway is "Closed.". So we don't interrupt classes. What classes? Gym and Band. Wow. How inconsiderate of us.).

Weird and unefficient measures have been taken to stop our playing of "hacky sack", as they would call it. Such as locking the doors leading into that hall. What's ironic is that they think we come from lunch or the outside. We never gone, never will. And not only they aren't stopping us, they are preventing classes such as gym from going outside of inside, and such. There is more, but I'm skipping to the meat.

Also, if any of you are wondering why we don't play outside by now, it's because it's never decent weather. Plus, we aren't doing any harm. I would love to respect their rules, but not if the rules were completely pointless. What next?

This one morning, we were playing footbag. The principal seemed to be starting his patrolling this day before this, but I was sick on that day being absent from school. So, he appears out of nowhere, grabs our hackysack out of midair when we were playing and casually walks away. Not one word from him or anyone else. We have 8 more. We pull out another and continue playing. He repeats this, and for some reason, no warning from the others that he was coming. And again. Still, not one word. Every single one of these were mine. And he took each one. We pulled out another, but then realized that we were going too far.

The bell rings, we go to class. Soon, school ends. Me and a friend go in to retrieve it. We head into his office and he wasn't there. We didn't have forever. We scurried through all of his drawers and cabinets. Didn't find it.

He arrives minutes and we stood by, idle. I apologized to him, and his gave me a short lecture. He then procedes to open one of the cabinets I already went through. "What?! Well, this is odd. It's gone. Somebody must have stolen it! This is where I put it.". He doesn't really look anywhere else. I just said I'd be back the next day because things would have gotten awkward if I stayed. In disbelief, I headed home. I didn't come back yet, as I'm afraid what he said was true. I have returned to his office just today and he wasn't there again, but his door was wide opened. Me and two other friends went through everything. Still gone.

My footbags are gone. I will admit this was my fault. Ignorance to the rules. But I don't think this should have happened. I haven't been able to find the principle since, and he hasn't patrolled my hall since. Great.

Honestly, I don't believe him. At all. He had bags of chocolates, candy, and other goodies. I'm sure someone would locate that specific cabinet, and steal just the footbags. Yes, that's sarcasm, to show how stupid of a concept it is.

Does anyone have advice or anything to share?

hackeysnacker · Post by **hackeysnacker** » 31 Mar 2006 17:02

well it's bullshit that they're trying to restrict your recreational activities but lunch is a bit more important than footbag. If they keep degrading what you're doing by calling it hackysack just ignore them until they call it footbag.
You should call your principal a fatty until he calls footbag "footbag." Once he does that then u can go back to calling him obese.

really though, talk to your parents about it or start a school club. good luck!

professor · Post by **professor** » 31 Mar 2006 17:22

My footbags are gone. I will admit this was my fault. Ignorance to the rules.

It's seems to me that since your principle just came by and stole your footbags without saying anything, that you weren't breaking any rules. If you were he should've told you something. The fact that you let him keep taking your bags seems odd though.

If a teacher, administrator, or principle came by and stole my footbag in mid-air without saying a word, I would run after him/her and ask them why they did that. I wouldn't ever let someone just take my stuff without telling me why. I don't care who you are, that's called stealing.

If I were you, I'd get your parents involved. High school administrators will bend over backwards for parents. Administrators try and make you think they own you, but they can't do anything if your parents get involved.

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 31 Mar 2006 19:50

Ben's right. They have to provide a reason. Also, from the sounds of it, your principal is a total dick. Not only did he take the bags for no reason, but he lied and didn't give it back. You definately should get an outside authority involved.

t1337dude · Post by **t1337dude** » 31 Mar 2006 20:23

professor wrote:
My footbags are gone. I will admit this was my fault. Ignorance to the rules.
It's seems to me that since your principle just came by and stole your footbags without saying anything, that you weren't breaking any rules. If you were he should've told you something. The fact that you let him keep taking your bags seems odd though.

If a teacher, administrator, or principle came by and stole my footbag in mid-air without saying a word, I would run after him/her and ask them why they did that. I wouldn't ever let someone just take my stuff without telling me why. I don't care who you are, that's called stealing.

If I were you, I'd get your parents involved. High school administrators will bend over backwards for parents. Administrators try and make you think they own you, but they can't do anything if your parents get involved.

He didn't steal them, he confiscated them. He knows we know the rules. He knew we knew that we shouldn't be playing. I was assuming he did this also the day before I played, because my friends footbags were taken too and there was words exchanged. We played regardless because
1) We weren't going to let his BS ruin our time.
2) "Fighting the System".

Also, I'm *still* in Middleschool.

t1337dude · Post by **t1337dude** » 31 Mar 2006 20:27

SandWraith wrote:Ben's right. They have to provide a reason. Also, from the sounds of it, your principal is a total dick. Not only did he take the bags for no reason, but he lied and didn't give it back. You definately should get an outside authority involved.

After talking with friends, I found out they did provide one reason, which I forgot about because it wasn't relevant to us. He said the school's lights were breaking. It's funny, because first - Flimsy Footbags can't penetrate plastic or pressure it hard enough to break the glass behind it. And second - I wouldn't let anyone kick my footbags that hard. A footbag isn't a football or soccer ball, which you can punt as you please.

But we already let the school's janitors and the principal that that was completely BS.

Also, I don't know for a fact the principle lied. But I will confront him again.

professor · Post by **professor** » 31 Mar 2006 21:01

He can't just take your stuff without telling you he is going to. I don't care if he has told you a thousand times that you can't play in the hall. If he doesn't tell YOU, "Next time you play in the hall, I'm going to take your hacky sack." Then he can't just take YOUR footbag.

Anyways this is all beside the point. If you get your parents to go in and ask for your stuff, he has to give your stuff back; even if he rightfully took it. It's still your things and as long as they're not illegal things (drugs, guns, etc.), then he has to give them back. If he lost them or they got stolen, then he's responsible for replacing them.

andr00 · Post by **andr00** » 31 Mar 2006 21:36

If I were you, I'd get your parents involved. High school administrators will bend over backwards for parents. Administrators try and make you think they own you, but they can't do anything if your parents get involved.

do that man, this guy knows whut uop

Xain · Post by **Xain** » 31 Mar 2006 21:37

I think there are better things you could do than continue to play openly, if fighting the system is your goal. which is probably very difficult, because if your middle school is anything like mine was, it's a prison. You can congregate in circles without a bag, or even have a shadow circle. You can spread postive information about footbag, even put up flyers about it at your school, make sure to hand one to your principal. Play afterschool in public areas. And most importantly, even if you fail to be recognized by your school, keep playing, because I can tell you; it's worth it. Once you develop your skills more, the chances of you being accepted as a serious athlete instead of a 'hacker' are much better.

Heres what happened at my school(highschool). Freshman year I come in, and there are tons of people who play every day at lunch, but they all play kill(or whatever you want to call it.) Near the end of that year, I got into freestyle. The next year, they only let us play outside. playing inside was banned. although I did it all the time solo, and got away with it that way. It was a really pain for me though, to not be recognized for what I was doing. To the admin of the school, I was still just another hacker. This year though, it all changed. The majority of people who had made up the kill circle had graduated, and thanks to my gym teacher being awesome, I can play in gym class. No one ever tells me anymore,"you can do that here"

janis · Post by **janis** » 01 Apr 2006 01:48

My highschool got pissed off with me and my friends always playing. Then again we played during class time, played in class, played uber hack which involved jumping down staircases/roof doing jesters, butterflys, bowling over year7's etc. Despite this our bags never got confiscated by any teachers, thats pretty tight dude.

ninja · Post by **ninja** » 01 Apr 2006 03:55

Make the principal pay for your footbags even if they didnt really get stolen. Im pretty sure if the principals confiscated something from you and it gets stolen, he has to pay for it. If you really care get your parents to call and make him pay for the footbags and maybe they will even let you continue playing

sniper4life · Post by **sniper4life** » 01 Apr 2006 09:31

First we decided to go up to stairwells and play in them, and you can still eat your lunch while kicking. We got caught playing and walked back to lunch quite a few times, but we still went up there and even the hall monitors dont bother us anymore.

Last year we were playing and my friend's shoe flew off and busted a ceiling tile and then i was nailing my bag against the ceiling and some how the case holding the lights came unattatched. So it was hanging there by one side

The thing about people stealing your bag is you have to be faster since i've had tons of people try an steal them from me including hall monitors and the police officer at our school. Pretty much just keep playing and it should get better in High School anyways

Torn · Post by **Torn** » 01 Apr 2006 09:49

I used to be a circle kicker too and you bet that our school didn't like "Hacky-Sack" at all...Well of course Hacky as they called it was completely forbidden inside school because it was way to noisy and we might do damage to the things standing around...It never really bothered me because I usually don't play footbag at school and I will soon graduate anyway...Still my gym teacher doesn't think that what I do is just kicking a chrocheted bag around, he has seen me play footbag and he knows that this is just as well a sport as football or anything else...

I just wanted to encourage you guys to fight your school legally. It's way better to attack them on a legal way than doing some guerilla fight against the regime

..Show your principle what he is allowed to do and what he ain't and like others already said, get your parents involved ! Noone is allowed to steal your footbags or to confiscate them without having a reason to do so and noone who has ever seen someone play footbag can say that this ain't a sport...

I don't know how someone in his right mind can forbid footbag @ school because they always moan that today's youth doesn't do any sports anymore and only sits at the computer playing Egoshooters or something like that...

Don't ever give up and fight for your right (to party

) !

brinard · Post by **brinard** » 01 Apr 2006 10:08

HAH! this thread made me remember high school. no hackysack. forbidden. we played anyways. we ended up putting 2 feet through different walls. what fun. never got one confiscated. man we were reckless...
we ended up starting a club. so we got to play during advisory about 3 times a month, and lots after school. we even go to use the gym floor. and the blacktop for 4square.

i miss highschool. way more fun then college... well... maybe not...

funklovesfootbag · Post by **funklovesfootbag** » 01 Apr 2006 14:22

Fight the Power!

Fuck that guy. You can't let douchebags get away with that kind of crap, they don't have the authority to take your property. If you want your bags back I'd have your parents threaten the shit out of him (If you don't feel comfortable dealing with him on your own.)

As long as you're not being disruptive, keep playing. You might want to try explaining that it's harmless and that it's good exercise also.

Rad · Post by **Rad** » 01 Apr 2006 15:31

I'm in highschool right now(10) and the same thing is going on here as well. Not exactly the same but they've banned hackeysack and people are still playing. While I was reading this thread an interesting thought came to mind. Something you might want to try next time he tries to stop you from playing or confiscate your bag is freedom of speech. You could argue that kickin' the bag is a symbolic way of expressing yourself, symbolic speech and stopping you from kickin' is censorship. If you tried to make an intellectual arguement about symbolic speech and whatever odd amendment goes along with it(didn't pay attention during that part of class), you MIGHT impress him and get him off your case. Or compose an essay regarding footbag, censorship, symbolic speech and some court cases that go along with it. That would be a good way to get footbag unbanned or allowed.

Bander87 · Post by **Bander87** » 01 Apr 2006 17:13

Rad wrote:I'm in highschool right now(10) and the same thing is going on here as well. Not exactly the same but they've banned hackeysack and people are still playing. While I was reading this thread an interesting thought came to mind. Something you might want to try next time he tries to stop you from playing or confiscate your bag is freedom of speech. You could argue that kickin' the bag is a symbolic way of expressing yourself, symbolic speech and stopping you from kickin' is censorship. If you tried to make an intellectual arguement about symbolic speech and whatever odd amendment goes along with it(didn't pay attention during that part of class), you MIGHT impress him and get him off your case. Or compose an essay regarding footbag, censorship, symbolic speech and some court cases that go along with it. That would be a good way to get footbag unbanned or allowed.

I personally think this isn't a good idea, although I do understand what you are trying to get at.

Basically, I am in agreement with what everyone said, as far as getting PARENTS involved and LEGALLY fighting the system. Next time use other people's footbags, so theirs will be taken away and so their parents can fight too

Kyle Hewitt · Post by **Kyle Hewitt** » 01 Apr 2006 17:28

Go around those assholes and talk to the school board

andr00 · Post by **andr00** » 01 Apr 2006 17:29

this thread needs an update...fast.

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 01 Apr 2006 17:36

wow, thats really odd, my school welcomes activities such as these.....
in a couple of weeks me and a couple of other footbag peep are doing an assembly on footbag, which is totally the opposite of your school! that sucks man!