Petition to Lift Katamari Trip's Ban at ECHHS

On April 15, 2008, East Chapel Hill High School's annual event Springfest was held during the school day. The purpose of this event, as it always has been, is so students could kick back and simply enjoy living life with their friends for one day without having to worry about tests, grades, teachers, or anything.

Throughout the day, various events were held- Super Smash Bros. tournaments, card games, a dodgeball tournament, and various bands played music outside. Each band is allowed a slot in which to perform, and this year, the new band Katamari Trip, featuring Jeremy Reed, Nick White, Cameron Manis, and Jon Davies, played from 1:30-2:00. Within a week, they were officially banned from any more events held at East Chapel HIll High School.

The reason? Well, that's a bit hard to define, as it keeps changing whenever the band successfully defends itself. Let me start at the top of the story.

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One of Katamari Trip's original songs involved statements regarding their views about the United States' war in Iraq. The chorus of the song contained the lyric "Fight your goddamn war". However, the teachers apparently misheard it as "fight your goddamn whore", which, as Jeremy Reed told me later, "is totally unacceptable by both the morals of the band and of the school". This was reason No. 1: "objectionable lyrics and themes".

Members of the band immediately explained this to the members of the Student Government Association (SGA) and several teachers who had been offended. Now, you think that would be the end of the conflict; after all, they had officially debunked the reason for the ban, so everyone should be happy, right?

Apparently not.

The SGA struck back with a vengence that came from nowhere, now wishing to ban K-T for saying "goddamn" in front of fragile high schoolers.
Now, while saying "goddamn" may not be the most tactful thing to say, you can't ban someone for swearing. It says on page 17 of the Student Handbook we recieve at the beginning of every school year that students will get Detention for using profanity. DETENTION, not a ban!

Now, even though it's down in the Rulebook that a detention is all that is warranted for swearing (which in itself in rediculous- have you never walked down the hallways and listened to the conversations that go on?), the SGA apparently doesn't pay attention to the rules the school created for them to follow, and banned Katamari Trip from not only any East Chapel Hill High events, but also any events happening at Chapel Hill High, which means they can't even perform at Junior Follies (a sort of talent show held by the Junior Class Council at CHHS).

This is my message: even if you don't know who Katamari Trip is or what they sound like, if you believe that a band should have the right to express their views in an artistic way without being harrassed by a SGA that doesn't even follow the rules, join this petition.