Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Zebra
Please tell me where you officiate. I want to be sure I don't have any relatives or friends in your state that can possibly end up in a game where you are working. Why not give people a chance to do what?!? Permanently injure a kid? This isn't just bad judgement on an alleged adult's part. It's CRIMINAL abuse!!!!
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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.