On our local college campus, as about a foot of snow fell in town, there was a snowball fight. Regrettably, a few windows were broken.
Snowballs, baseballs, and footballs sometimes break windows. Accidental damage is unfortunate; deliberate vandalism is wrong.
A regulation against snowball throwing, on the theory that someone might get hurt, or property might be damaged, is both unnecessary and silly.
I cannot tell from an article in the nearby Janesville Gazette if the windows were deliberately broken, or if all of this was the result of students who can’t throw a ball properly, and accidentally hit a window. (Presumably, that latter situation would fall under a ‘throws like a girl’ regulation.)
There were no tickets issued for the damage because no one was identified as a culprit for the broken windows.
There’s apparently a university regulation against snowball throwing on campus. A campus police sergeant observes that snowballs are expressly mentioned among a list of hard objects one cannot throw on campus.
I don’t know if the prohibition expressly covers toasters, but I am quite certain that if someone threw a toaster and broke a window, the damage would be actionable at law.
The campus regulation is designed to prevent the throwing of hard objects to prevent injury, but one should know that Wisconsin already has laws against inflicting injury or property damage.
Snowballs, footballs, baseballs, bowling balls, marbles, rocks, acorns, staplers, beer cans, rulers, clocks, potted plants, toy cars, light bulbs, Chia Pets: they might all give rise to civil or criminal penalties, if thrown at someone, or against a window.
Ordinary and sensible people think: why spend hours of policing over snowball fights? Oh, please.
I suppose that our campus police force has an anti-snowball squad at the ready for just these situations.
Official remarks like these only cause embarrassment to the university, suggesting a fussy, upright approach to ordinary experiences.