This story out of Massachusetts is really pretty sad to see.
If you're too young to smoke, don't smoke. Certainly don't post pictures of yourself smoking to Facebook.
But by golly, what lesson are we teaching our young men when we activate the full force of the neighborhood Nanny State against them?
If these kids were caught illegally drinking, do you think they'd be forced to forfeit? If not, why the double standard?
One of the boy's parents, John Gianakakis, said the cigars were fake. From NBC 10:
John Gianakakis says he had ordered fake cigars so that some of the lacrosse players could take part in a post-graduation tradition without breaking the MIAA rules, but the fake cigars weren't going to arrive in time, so Gianakakis says he ended up making some himself using tea and non-tobacco materials.
'I called my friend, he owns a smoke shop, and I said, "hey, do you have any fake cigars?" And he goes, "Nah but I can tell you how to make them if you want, I don't know how they're gonna taste," and I'm like, "I don't care how they taste, it's for props.'"
Once controversy bubbled up around the cigar photo, Gianakakis says he even brought one of the fake cigars to school leaders as proof they were not real. Despite that, the players were still suspended, and the team still had to forfeit its state semifinal game at the last minute.
Another photo posted to social media of the alleged cigars:
On June 9, Gianakakis and another dad, Drew Wile, marched down to the principal's office at Ipswich High School. Police were ultimately called.
The principal, Jonathan Mitchell, said it looked like there was smoke in one of the photos of the cigars posted to social media.
He also personally visited a local store, Shaw's, where he got a manager to print out a receipt for the tea bags that showed they had been purchased the same day that the school notified parents about a potential violation (June 8).
According to WaPo, Gianakakis' lawyer mocked that level of sleuthing:
Randazza, the Gianakakis family's lawyer, said he hadn't seen the receipt but he mocked the probe: 'Like, you're in this CSI-level investigation over a couple of kids not doing s — t.'
Randazza, who said cigars have long been a postgraduation tradition in Ipswich, added: 'Best-case scenario, John's telling the truth. Worst-case scenario, John's an old-school guy taking care of the kids. Either way, John's a good guy.'
Consider this: Massachusetts allows boys who think they're girls to compete on the girls' teams, no questions asked.
Down in Texas, Karmelo Anthony murdered Austin Metcalf and was still allowed to walk at graduation.
Liberals, like the majority of people in Massachusetts, want to give criminals five, ten, or twenty chances at being rehabilitated after serious crimes like murder.
But a bunch of 17- and 18-year-old young men taking a picture with stogies is game over??
Some residents think this will teach the boys a lesson.
It will, but it will be the opposite of what they expect.
It's going to radicalize them even more.
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