55 Students suspended in Moate Community School

Daisy 55

Opinions49 wrote: »

Also the students do not chant at people the deem inferior to them , they chant at their friends. there is no maliciousness behind these chants it is all banter. Some of these people are making the senior boys sound like bullies and it is not fair.

Seriously??

runawaybishop

livedadream wrote: »

to be fair i dont think its being used as a side to the argument. i think its just being used to maybe give the kids a push in the right direction of a bit of perspective.

a football game was cancelled, nobody died.

Like I said, be quiet your issue isn't serious. I detest that line.

livedadream

runawaybishop wrote: »

Like I said, be quiet your issue isn't serious. I detest that line.

without derailing the thread, their issue isnt serious, they broke the rules a football match was cancelled, i understand that when your 17-18 and that with the added tension of finishing school and the leaving cert etc this can seem like the end of the world but its not. its a blip that was blown out of proportion.

Perspective is vital in this kinda situation.

runawaybishop

livedadream wrote: »

without derailing the thread, their issue isnt serious, they broke the rules a football match was cancelled, i understand that when your 17-18 and that with the added tension of finishing school and the leaving cert etc this can seem like the end of the world but its not. its a blip that was blown out of proportion.

Perspective is vital in this kinda situation.

It's not serious, doesn't mean they need to leave it there though.

TF52

its not like the tournament was on during class time, it was just during lunch, if the principal wanted the students to focus on their LC why not just put them in a room and study ? the students just wanted to play/watch football during their recreation time

livedadream

runawaybishop wrote: »

It's not serious, doesn't mean they need to leave it there though.

again to be fair i dont think anyone said they had to leave it there.

i do also love how all the studnets that were commenting are now gone, should we expect them after school or is detention involved?

Termsand Conditions1

TriangularGuy wrote: »

No and that's not what these students done. The only school rule they broke was mitching 3 classes in order to sit silently, a common rule broken in that school which is punished with a warning or cleanup duty. These students were punished for having different views than the school.

They weren't doing a 'silent' protest. They were chanting things like 'bring Duffy back' and 'Lowry's a c***'.
Also the tournament wasn't canceled just so they could focus on exams, it was canceled due to other rules broken, such as bringing the bench's outside without permission. I personally see a case for both sides, but you should try to get all your facts right before making invalid arguments.

dr.kenneth noisewater

TF52 wrote: »

its not like the tournament was on during class time, it was just during lunch, if the principal wanted the students to focus on their LC why not just put them in a room and study ? the students just wanted to play/watch football during their recreation time

As a couple previous posters have stated this wasn't the issue. Game was stopped due to chanting/abuse aimed at other students and the Principal

SteM

TF52 wrote: »

its not like the tournament was on during class time, it was just during lunch, if the principal wanted the students to focus on their LC why not just put them in a room and study ? the students just wanted to play/watch football during their recreation time

It's become obvious from reading this thread that the tournament was not canceled so pupils could study. It was obviously cancelled because some students were bullying others during the match by chanting at them. According to posts on this thread they were told not to do it before the match, they were warned during the match, it continued so the principal stopped the game. Seems fair enough to me.

SteM

Termsand Conditions1 wrote: »

They weren't doing a 'silent' protest. They were chanting things like 'bring Duffy back' and 'Lowry's a c***'.
Also the tournament wasn't canceled just so they could focus on exams, it was canceled due to other rules broken, such as bringing the bench's outside without permission. I personally see a case for both sides, but you should try to get all your facts right before making invalid arguments.

If this is true then it's hard to side with the pupils at all.

TF52

and it wasnt even just 6th years in the tournament

TF52

SteM wrote: »

It's become obvious from reading this thread that the tournament was not canceled so pupils could study. It was obviously cancelled because some students were bullying others during the match by chanting at them. According to posts on this thread they were told not to do it before the match, they were warned during the match, it continued so the principal stopped the game. Seems fair enough to me.

Ok but why use collective punishment, if these students were bullying, why punish everyone ?

TF52

also im not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but some of the students who participated in the protest were refused awards they were set to get.

livedadream

TF52 wrote: »

also im not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but some of the students who participated in the protest were refused awards they were set to get.

hahaha if they were good behaviour awards or student of the year is anyone surprised?

is lowry the name of the principle?

why else would they be saying lowry is a c***

if they wernt hurling abuse at another student that is...

Termsand Conditions1

TF52 wrote: »

also im not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but some of the students who participated in the protest were refused awards they were set to get.

Yeah, but he did warn them and give them an opportunity to walk away and still get their award, which is what some people did. The people who continued to protest knew that they wouldn't receive their award if they stayed.

TF52

livedadream wrote: »

hahaha if they were good behaviour awards or student of the year is anyone surprised?

is lowry the name of the principle?

why else would they be saying lowry is a c***

if they wernt hurling abuse at another student that is...

yea lowry is the principal

Termsand Conditions1

livedadream wrote: »

hahaha if they were good behaviour awards or student of the year is anyone surprised?

is lowry the name of the principle?

why else would they be saying lowry is a c***

if they wernt hurling abuse at another student that is...

Yup Lowry is the principal, and Duffy was the principle before him!

livedadream

Termsand Conditions1 wrote: »

Yup Lowry is the principal, and Duffy was the principle before him!

so like in all fairness did the students calling him a **** expect to not be suspended?

it all sounds a bit ridiculous.

TF52

livedadream wrote: »

so like in all fairness did the students calling him a **** expect to not be suspended?

it all sounds a bit ridiculous.

not all the 55 students call him a **** though

runawaybishop

TF52 wrote: »

not all the 55 students call him a **** though

But they hung around in a group with those who did, and didn't leave when requested - right?

TF52

runawaybishop wrote: »

But they hung around in a group with those who did, and didn't leave when requested - right?

the people calling lowry a **** were in the minority though, and about those who didnt leave when requested i mean it just comes down to what they believed

livedadream

TF52 wrote: »

the people calling lowry a **** were in the minority though, and about those who didnt leave when requested i mean it just comes down to what they believed

okay lets put it this way, if you were walking past a group of 10 people and 3 or 4 called you a ****

would you blame the group or pick out the individuals who were shouting?

in general in large groups its hard to pick out a few voices and there's a mentality of you were there but didnt stop it.

if im sitting next to someone and they call someone else a ****, im going to tell them to cop on, and if i dont, its because i agree.

runawaybishop

TF52 wrote: »

the people calling lowry a **** were in the minority though, and about those who didnt leave when requested i mean it just comes down to what they believed

Right so they were all hanging out in a group and refused to leave when asked and I assume also refused to leave when the principle warned them there would be consequences.

Its not about what they believed, its about an appropriate response. Roaring abuse and refusing direction from the principle isn't an appropriate response. They quite clearly left no choice for the principle but to take sanctions against them. Honestly I cannot see any real argument to be made for the pupils involved, this was entirely their own doing.

JusticeFor55

I was one of the 55 students suspended for our protest last week, i have been following this forum with annoyance at the amount of lies and mistruths i have read about people i call my friends.

Let me start by saying how important the soccer tournament is to us in mcs, it has been on the go for 15+ years and chanting has always been a vital part of the enjoyment it brings to every student.

Last year its fair to say the 5th/6th years got out of hand as smoke bombs were used on the courts during the final, despite the disapproval from our principal, even though this added to the atmosphere and caused no harm.

This year two representatives from 6th approached our principal and they came to an agreement that the tournament would go ahead last week, the principal said he wanted nothing extreme like last years smoke bombs , to which we obliged although we said there would be the usual craic involved ie chanting.

For the first day of the tournament we went ahead after being told just at the beginning of that break that we couldnt chant , so we didnt chant as our principal attended the game, many people left due to the lack of atmosphere and we decided this wasnt what we agreed to beforehand.

The next day day we went ahead with the games but decided we wouldnt be stopped by the unfair wishes of our principal , and began chanting about people who were playing and about a teacher(who laughed with us) in a light hearted way,our principal then came and took the ball to the dismay of 200+ students who were at the game, he then bowed and gave us the thumbs up before leaving with the ball.

We then decided we would sit down in protest of this decision to fight for what we believed in, nearly every student on the courts sat with us , although teachers removed many until about 80 remained, we then proceded to chant about our dismay at what has happened , we chanted 'justice for banter'. We also chanted derogatory terms toward our principal for what he had done.

Our prinicipal and both vice principals then came to us to try reach common ground so we would return to class, few people left to discuss the issue with them though as we were told the chanting wouldnt be allowed again.

We then proceded to chant 'justice for banter' at the end of each class to the students looking over at us, we had about 60 people left at this stage. During the 2nd last class we were informed that an art practical was taking place in the art room, about 60 yards from us, we didnt make noise after this out of respect for those doing exams.

Near the end of the day people who were mistakenly considered to be 'ringleaders' for speaking for us to the principal had their parents called into the school, after this we stayed sitting until school ended.

Most people would agree we deserved to be punished for this, although the actuons of our principal in response were ridiculous in my opinion:

•Students who were involved in the protest that were repeating the leaving cert are not allowed back in school until the exams begin

•Everyone else involved was suspended for two days, despite upcoming exams, also the official protocol of suspension was not followed by the principal

•Students (mostly 6th year) who hard worked effortlessly for two years had awards stripped from them because our principal claimed he couldnt give them out in good conscience

•The mothers of the students who had awards taken from them were rang to be informed about this, greatly upsetting many of them in the process, when the right thing to do would have been to tell us face to face.

•The argument of chanting as a reason to call off the tournament was ridiculous as this year we only chanted about people we knew well, and not in an offensive way.

•The argument of bullying on the snapchat page is invalid as we only do 'player profiles' on people we know well who can handle the craic involved.

•Tys involved are denied a part in ty night, which is a big event at the end of their year.

•He lied to parents during meetings today about what happened during the tournament, stating that a girl cane crying into his office last wednesday morning , even though it started last wednesday at lunch and we dudnt chant about any girls.

Sorry for the long post, put clarification was needed!!

Christy42

JusticeFor55 wrote: »

I was one of the 55 students suspended for our protest last week, i have been following this forum with annoyance at the amount of lies and mistruths i have read about people i call my friends.

Let me start by saying how important the soccer tournament is to us in mcs, it has been on the go for 15+ years and chanting has always been a vital part of the enjoyment it brings to every student.

Last year its fair to say the 5th/6th years got out of hand as smoke bombs were used on the courts during the final, despite the disapproval from our principal, even though this added to the atmosphere and caused no harm.

This year two representatives from 6th approached our principal and they came to an agreement that the tournament would go ahead last week, the principal said he wanted nothing extreme like last years smoke bombs , to which we obliged although we said there would be the usual craic involved ie chanting.

For the first day of the tournament we went ahead after being told just at the beginning of that break that we couldnt chant , so we didnt chant as our principal attended the game, many people left due to the lack of atmosphere and we decided this wasnt what we agreed to beforehand.

The next day day we went ahead with the games but decided we wouldnt be stopped by the unfair wishes of our principal , and began chanting about people who were playing and about a teacher(who laughed with us) in a light hearted way,our principal then came and took the ball to the dismay of 200+ students who were at the game, he then bowed and gave us the thumbs up before leaving with the ball.

We then decided we would sit down in protest of this decision to fight for what we believed in, nearly every student on the courts sat with us , although teachers removed many until about 80 remained, we then proceded to chant about our dismay at what has happened , we chanted 'justice for banter'. We also chanted derogatory terms toward our principal for what he had done.

Our prinicipal and both vice principals then came to us to try reach common ground so we would return to class, few people left to discuss the issue with them though as we were told the chanting wouldnt be allowed again.

We then proceded to chant 'justice for banter' at the end of each class to the students looking over at us, we had about 60 people left at this stage. During the 2nd last class we were informed that an art practical was taking place in the art room, about 60 yards from us, we didnt make noise after this out of respect for those doing exams.

Near the end of the day people who were mistakenly considered to be 'ringleaders' for speaking for us to the principal had their parents called into the school, after this we stayed sitting until school ended.

Most people would agree we deserved to be punished for this, although the actuons of our principal in response were ridiculous in my opinion:

•Students who were involved in the protest that were repeating the leaving cert are not allowed back in school until the exams begin

•Everyone else involved was suspended for two days, despite upcoming exams, also the official protocol of suspension was not followed by the principal

•Students (mostly 6th year) who hard worked effortlessly for two years had awards stripped from them because our principal claimed he couldnt give them out in good conscience

•The mothers of the students who had awards taken from them were rang to be informed about this, greatly upsetting many of them in the process, when the right thing to do would have been to tell us face to face.

•The argument of chanting as a reason to call off the tournament was ridiculous as this year we only chanted about people we knew well, and not in an offensive way.

•The argument of bullying on the snapchat page is invalid as we only do 'player profiles' on people we know well who can handle the craic involved.

•Tys involved are denied a part in ty night, which is a big event at the end of their year.

•He lied to parents during meetings today about what happened during the tournament, stating that a girl cane crying into his office last wednesday morning , even though it started last wednesday at lunch and we dudnt chant about any girls.

Sorry for the long post, put clarification was needed!!

What I find incredible is that only one side has given their point of view and they still sound like they are in the wrong.

You have no idea if a girl came in crying to his office for starters.
You admitted to insulting the principal.
You don't even attempt to defend the objects of the chants.
Banter is not justification for insults. It just makes you look dumb.
There is no tradition of a football match. 15 years is not a tradition.
You have no idea who can take the insults as plenty will hide if they can't. I only found out about how much one guy in my class hid his pain last year. I finished in 2007! I am only thankful I didn't take part in bullying him and more importantly that he is in a much better place now. I had no idea anyone in my class thought they were being bullied at the time.
Smoke bombs!?!
You admit the football matches are boring without people insulting each other. Why bother with the match?
Is there no field where you guys could organise the match yourselves instead of trying to disrupt school time (you certainly knew classes were on and a bit of common sense would have told you the odds of something state exam related being on weren't that low)

This thread just keeps on giving.

TF52

JusticeFor55 wrote: »

I was one of the 55 students suspended for our protest last week, i have been following this forum with annoyance at the amount of lies and mistruths i have read about people i call my friends.

Let me start by saying how important the soccer tournament is to us in mcs, it has been on the go for 15+ years and chanting has always been a vital part of the enjoyment it brings to every student.

Last year its fair to say the 5th/6th years got out of hand as smoke bombs were used on the courts during the final, despite the disapproval from our principal, even though this added to the atmosphere and caused no harm.

This year two representatives from 6th approached our principal and they came to an agreement that the tournament would go ahead last week, the principal said he wanted nothing extreme like last years smoke bombs , to which we obliged although we said there would be the usual craic involved ie chanting.

For the first day of the tournament we went ahead after being told just at the beginning of that break that we couldnt chant , so we didnt chant as our principal attended the game, many people left due to the lack of atmosphere and we decided this wasnt what we agreed to beforehand.

The next day day we went ahead with the games but decided we wouldnt be stopped by the unfair wishes of our principal , and began chanting about people who were playing and about a teacher(who laughed with us) in a light hearted way,our principal then came and took the ball to the dismay of 200+ students who were at the game, he then bowed and gave us the thumbs up before leaving with the ball.

We then decided we would sit down in protest of this decision to fight for what we believed in, nearly every student on the courts sat with us , although teachers removed many until about 80 remained, we then proceded to chant about our dismay at what has happened , we chanted 'justice for banter'. We also chanted derogatory terms toward our principal for what he had done.

Our prinicipal and both vice principals then came to us to try reach common ground so we would return to class, few people left to discuss the issue with them though as we were told the chanting wouldnt be allowed again.

We then proceded to chant 'justice for banter' at the end of each class to the students looking over at us, we had about 60 people left at this stage. During the 2nd last class we were informed that an art practical was taking place in the art room, about 60 yards from us, we didnt make noise after this out of respect for those doing exams.

Near the end of the day people who were mistakenly considered to be 'ringleaders' for speaking for us to the principal had their parents called into the school, after this we stayed sitting until school ended.

Most people would agree we deserved to be punished for this, although the actuons of our principal in response were ridiculous in my opinion:

•Students who were involved in the protest that were repeating the leaving cert are not allowed back in school until the exams begin

•Everyone else involved was suspended for two days, despite upcoming exams, also the official protocol of suspension was not followed by the principal

•Students (mostly 6th year) who hard worked effortlessly for two years had awards stripped from them because our principal claimed he couldnt give them out in good conscience

•The mothers of the students who had awards taken from them were rang to be informed about this, greatly upsetting many of them in the process, when the right thing to do would have been to tell us face to face.

•The argument of chanting as a reason to call off the tournament was ridiculous as this year we only chanted about people we knew well, and not in an offensive way.

•The argument of bullying on the snapchat page is invalid as we only do 'player profiles' on people we know well who can handle the craic involved.

•Tys involved are denied a part in ty night, which is a big event at the end of their year.

•He lied to parents during meetings today about what happened during the tournament, stating that a girl cane crying into his office last wednesday morning , even though it started last wednesday at lunch and we dudnt chant about any girls.

Sorry for the long post, put clarification was needed!!

Thanks for posting this for others, i myself am in mcs but was out on thursday so couldnt participate but definitely would if i was in #justiceforbanter

irishgrover

JusticeFor55 wrote: »

I was one of the 55 students suspended for our protest last week, i have been following this forum with annoyance at the amount of lies and mistruths i have read about people i call my friends........

1st off, thanks for the details and well formed explanation of events. It certainly clears up a lot of stuff and makes everything more understandable.

However having read through it and understood it, it pretty much sounds like
a.) the game has a history of verbal rowdiness that escalated into smoke bombing last year
b.) The Principle made it clear this was not acceptable
c.) You believe that the vocal rowdiness was still permitted
d.) You believe the principal went back on this agreement
e.) You were instructed to return to class
f.) A significant minority refused
g.) A significant minority refused and started chanting that the principle was a c*nt
h.) That significant minority of c*nt chanters, alhough with those who associated with them were suspended.

In fairness, I don't think that too many rationale adults will disagree with the outcome.
You lie with dogs you get flees....the people power element of chanting and calling someone a c*nt, or associating with calling someone a c*nt is very empowering, but it looks like you a living the reality of actions and repercussions.....

A school, or anyone in any position of authority, where authority is important, cannot take sh"t like that without reacting.... the world would go to ****e if that became acceptable behavior....

JusticeFor55

Christy42 wrote: »

What I find incredible is that only one side has given their point of view and they still sound like they are in the wrong.

You have no idea if a girl came in crying to his office for starters.
You admitted to insulting the principal.
You don't even attempt to defend the objects of the chants.
Banter is not justification for insults. It just makes you look dumb.
There is no tradition of a football match. 15 years is not a tradition.
You have no idea who can take the insults as plenty will hide if they can't. I only found out about how much one guy in my class hid his pain last year. I finished in 2007! I am only thankful I didn't take part in bullying him and more importantly that he is in a much better place now. I had no idea anyone in my class thought they were being bullied at the time.
Smoke bombs!?!
You admit the football matches are boring without people insulting each other. Why bother with the match?
Is there no field where you guys could organise the match yourselves instead of trying to disrupt school time (you certainly knew classes were on and a bit of common sense would have told you the odds of something state exam related being on weren't that low)

This thread just keeps on giving.

I do because he claimed she came before the tournament began, along with other lies, trying to sway parents to side with him.
I came to tell the whole truth, and we did insult, this didnt warrant his actions ever since.
There were no offensive chants this year.
No, they are boring without chanting, not insults.
There is no time when something becomes a tradition, but its very important to us and it had been on for many years, so it is a tradition.

stoplooklisten

justice for banter? Is this what was being chanted while while the art exam was going on?

JusticeFor55

irishgrover wrote: »

1st off, thanks for the details and well formed explanation of events. It certainly clears up a lot of stuff and makes everything more understandable.

However having read through it and understood it, it pretty much sounds like
a.) the game has a history of verbal rowdiness that escalated into smoke bombing last year
b.) The Principle made it clear this was not acceptable
c.) You believe that the vocal rowdiness was still permitted
d.) You believe the principal went back on this agreement
e.) You were instructed to return to class
f.) A significant minority refused
g.) A significant minority refused and started chanting that the principle was a c*nt
h.) That significant minority of c*nt chanters, alhough with those who associated with them were suspended.

In fairness, I don't think that too many rationale adults will disagree with the outcome.
You lie with dogs you get flees....the people power element of chanting and calling someone a c*nt, or associating with calling someone a c*nt is very empowering, but it looks like you a living the reality of actions and repercussions.....

A school, or anyone in any position of authority, where authority is important, cannot take sh"t like that without reacting.... the world would go to ****e if that became acceptable behavior....

Calling someone a c*nt was over the line but the actions of our principal were inexcusable, recently he also threatened students with suspension for parking outside the school in public parking spots, which he has no right to do, he has also taken awards away from students for wearing different colour shoes to the awards night!