[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Old School

Not sure I understand where I officiate has anything to do with this. My point is; no one was injured and there's no telling how long he was doing this b4 someone mentioned it. So if the parent was doing this and nobody got hurt. Telling him not to do it again is reasonable, at least to me it's reasonable. You must also tell him that it is illegal at any basketball game because he simply may not know. Aren't these the same lasers they use in some rock concerts? If they are, I haven't heard of anybody's eyes being put out here because of this. Maybe these parents are thinking the same thing. To me, this falls in the same category as artificial noise makers, or other devices used at the game to try and get an advantage.

Give the person the benefit of the doubt. Now that you have informed him that it is illegal. If he does it again, it's out and you got more people to help ensure it doesn't happen again. Jumping to the extreme like what was done put everybody on the brink. You took away any chance for the parent to not lose face and say, I didn't know and will never do it again. This is a good result too, even though nobody here will acknowledge it. Instead you choose the no other way option and now you got the worse coming at you. Now, the incident is not over. Several days later and you're still dealing with it. Your job is to officiate the game, not to police the event.

I understand now. You started in 12th grade and worked your way back to 1st grade and are still going. You certainly are not gaining wisdom with age.