Help Me Convice Someone D&D Isn't Evil

[Storm Raven]

Isn't she in breaking your 1st Amendment rights?

[snip text of 1st Amendment]

Tinker vs Des Moines Indepentent Community School District, 1969; ruled that the First Amendment applies to student in public schools.

Not sure if it applies here.

Might want to check http://www.aclu.org/students/ for you legal rights.

No, she is not necessarily violating the First Amendment, because her stated basis for disallowing the game (so far as I can tell from the initial post) is research studies that show the game is psycologically harmful to those who play it. This would be a non-religious reason for rejecting the game.

Now, if those stuies were religious in nature, or if they were a cover for a religious basis, you might have a First Amendment problem, but even then you might not. One can use material garnered from religious organizations as a basis for policy, provided that material has a secular basis. And so on.

 

[Emiricol]

The first amendment doesn't really say you can restrict freedom of speech as long as it isn't for religious reasons.

 

[Storm Raven]

The first amendment doesn't really say you can restrict freedom of speech as long as it isn't for religious reasons.

It also doesn't say that schools cannot restrict what their students do in officially sanctioned organizations. For a very arbitrary example, cosnider this: can a high school football coach cut a player because he wears his hair long? Pretty much yes.

Can a school restrict particular activities in the name of safety or well-being ofthe students? This is pretty much a conditional yes (not in every case, but enough to that this instance being discussed here is not necessarily a violation of the First Amendment).

 

[Emiricol]

Absolutely. That's a safety issue, from the school's perspective (supposedly anyway). It has nothing to do with the first amendment, it has to do with this lady stating "research shows".

I was just correcting a gross misunderstanding.

 

[Tiama'at]

Absolutely. That's a safety issue, from the school's perspective (supposedly anyway). It has nothing to do with the first amendment, it has to do with this lady stating "research shows".

I was just correcting a gross misunderstanding.

I still like my idea more - and it didn't create any flame wars about religion.

- Ma'at

 

[Emiricol]

Neither did mine. Note the topic - the amendment... there's no judgement about religion or religious organizations by anyone since near the top of the last page, and that wasn't me

Anyway, the point is, if you can show research to the contrary, you can probably force her to either back off or pony up with her own "research". Which you can then debunk.

And the guy who compared the ACLU to nazis also said to USE the ACLU. I think he's right, and it at least won't hurt to talk to them to see if this is something they'd intervene for. They deal with this sort of stuff all the time, and will be able to tell you what the real deal is.

 

[bolen]

Someone state why you should play games at school anyway. If you have time for games durring the school day. something is wrong. also you could just play at someones house. It seems to me school activities are more academic or athletic in nature then D&D.

Of course there is nothing bad about D&D but it may not have a place in school.

 

[smetzger]

I think you are being closed minded and offensive.

I'm not even gonna bother looking at all these posts, because I already know everything about this.

First off, if your AP is religious, find out if her "research" comes from religious sources. Get something on paper. If that's the case, go to the SUPERINTENDENT about forced religion, and if HE doesn't listen, then you file a legal petition. It may seem like too much trouble over a game, but it's time to send a message to organized religion.

That said, organized religion itself is the true evil. Organized religion has caused 80% of all the wars and attacks the world has ever seen, including the Crusades and 9/11, and Batholics nor Christians help this one bit. Christians, Catholics, I dislike people involved in ALL organized religion. None of them worship correctly AT ALL, and THAT is a fact. God never said D&D was evil, and contrart to religious belief, D&D does not preach sorcery. Heck, there are people who play even magic-less campaigns out there! The game is whatever the DM makes it, plain and simple.

Like I said, organized religion is evil. I would be very happy if all those people disappeared from the face of the planet, because they try to stick THEIR petty beliefs down our throats. I believe in God and I worship him my own way, Brandon Harwellism I will call it. I worship correctly, those stupid organized religions do not.

It's simple to worship correctly, people. Know your creator, know that there is a power greater than you, and treat all other good people with respect while doing everything in your power to stop the spread of evil. That's all. If it don't hurt any innocent people, it's okay, plain and simple. I'm just sick and tired of the religious nuyts trying to control the lives of people.

 

[EricNoah]

There will be no more warnings in this thread, folks. Discuss ... but if you turn this into a political debate, or if you start directing insults and other inappropriate comments at each other, the thread will be closed.

 

[Zander]

Check out this link:

CAR-PGa

As the UK National Co-ordinator of CAR-PGa, I second Kid Charlemagne's suggestion. CAR-PGa can:

• Provide you with all the gaming advocacy material you'll ever need. At our HQ in Texas, we have what is probably the most comprehensive archive of information on RPG's ever assembled.
• Provide advice on dealing with the media.
• Bring pressure to bear directly on your AP. I think she might back down if she started receiving cogently argued letters from CAR-PGa members across the US and around the world.
• Get you answers to questions/things you want to discuss through our message board.

I know the above sounds like one big plug for CAR-PGa, but we exist in large part to support gamers in your situation. So get in touch. We're here to help.