Many in the blawgosphere have had their fun ridiculing the actions of the Rock Hill, South Carolina school district for having seven people arrested for the crime of cheering at a high school graduation.  At first blush, it was just one of those mindlessly stupid overreactions that petty school tyrants enjoy so much. 

Now I’m one of those guys who finds it personally annoying when people demonstrate that they have no manners at all and engage in inappropriate behavior.  From my early musician days, I hate it when people clap after a musical solo but before the end of a piece. 

And yes, the clapping and hooting and hollering for one kid during a graduation ceremony may mean that the family of the next kid doesn’t get to hear their child’s name announced.  Plus, I’ve heard people from the Cacalaccas hoot and holler, and they sound like idiots, diminishing the significance of a ceremony by the jarring realization that even children from this background are allowed to participate.

Now that I’ve offended a large portion of the southeast corner of the United States, school administrators and parents of musicians who inadvertently clapped for junior, the time has come to address satirical post by that pointy-headed wag,  Orin Kerr. 

Proving that the academy demands a higher order of ridicule than the rest of us, Orin has managed the reverse slippery slope slam to note that this story of human frailty has failed to make the rounds of the lawprofs.

I think this is a classic slippery slope problem. Imagine you let people cheer at graduation. It seems innocuous at first. People get used to it; it feels good. But the next thing you know, they’ll start cheering at sporting events. Then they’ll add in concerts. Then they’ll cheer on their favorite contestants when watching American Idol. Before you know it, people will start expressing great joy all the time. Let’s face it: Graduations are the gateway cheering event. I’m glad the cops are taking this seriously.

Sure, notice how he brings American Idol into this, gratuitously denigrating another American institution.  But there is a real issue here that no amount of Ivory Tower sanctimoniousness can ignore. 

These bastions of American education have long been the birthplace of critical thought and intellectual freedom.  Without the bold moves of educators, recognizing a real problem while others play games and have their fun at the expense propriety, the next generation of our society could be our last. 

While rudely cheering the fact that little billy managed to get through high school, itself a feat that many families in South Carolina never thought would come, coming despite an announcement by the handful of people charged with bringing gravity and propriety to an event that signifies reaching the apex of achievement for so many, parents and family friends would rend the fabric of society.

Do you think it was easy for these educators to take such a bold stance, Orin?  Is that why you beltway liberals show your disdain for propriety by undermining your lesser brethren on the front line of decorum?

And what of the police officers charged with enforcing a school officials unpopular edict?  What if some harried grandmother pulled her concealed weapon out to challenge the cops efforts to make the school’s rules stick?  Would you be laughing then, with an officer down and four young children watching their pappy’s life drain out of him to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance?  No, not a pretty picture, is it?

We know that lawprofs, sitting in their oak-paneled offices and sipping Chardonnay from stemmed glassware with their pinky held high in the air, will be only too happy to laugh at the efforts of school administrators to stem the tide of rude behaviors, even if it means breaking a few eggs.  But if someone doesn’t take the initiative to do something, who will teach these young people, our future, our hope, right from wrong?  Do you think making a joke about it is going to help?

So while it’s fine for the worker-bees in the trenches like me to conclusively prove our intellectual frailty by ridiculing the efforts of school officials in Rock Hill, South Carolina, we expect far greater respect for the law, the police and the rigorous demands of high school propriety from someone like you.

And if I can’t hear when my daughter’s name is called at her upcoming high school graduation because of some miscreant’s inappropriate hooting and hollering, thus ruining the culmination of 12 years of blood, sweat and tears, I know who I have to blame.  Are you proud of yourself now?

And you can clap and yell all you want as you watch American Idol.  From your jail cell.