<p>The University band (PUB) faced physical abuse, harassment and taunting on Saturday while accompanying the football team to its away game against The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.</p>
<p>The booing was so loud, [and] the cadets who were on the field were yelling at us, Cut your hair, long-haired faggots and You go have fun in college, Ill go fight the war, he said.</p>
<p>The cadets also stole band members hats and spit on female members of the band, some members said.</p>
<p>Bubin added that he overheard older cadets ordering the younger students to go after the band.</p>
<p>From standrews referenced article - one cadet said the band members were “lucky they didn’t get killed”. Makes me wonder how they will handle being taunted by unfriendly citizens of countries they may be stationed in, if they can’t handle an opposing team’s band without rage.</p>
<p>Wow, that is crazy. I think that both parties were probably to blame here. Having never been to the Citadel, I’m not familiar with their Avenue of Remembrance, but it seems like a sacred place to them…and they didn’t appreciate a group from an opposing school that they perceived as disrespectful marching through that area.</p>
<p>As a member of my college’s marching band (not a scramble band), I’ve traveled to several opposing stadiums and actually don’t encounter that many bad fans…I guess most people know better than to boo an opposing band. We’re there as representatives of the University, so we can’t say anything back if we get rude comments anyway. However, this weekend, we took an away trip to one of the few stadiums in the conference I hadn’t been to yet, and encountered incredibly RUDE fans. Many stupid band jokes were made and we were repeatedly cursed at and flipped off. We tried our best to ignore it and grumbled among ourselves about it later.</p>
<p>I think that Princeton should have thought a little more about their audience and done a little research to plan a better path through campus…although they weren’t the most respectful of their opponents, the cadets’ actions were way over the top.</p>
<p>Talk about your ugly American, who was visiting who’s country here? Princeton’s diplomacy corps (band) managed to alienate the inhabitants of their host country in short order.</p>
<p>So the Princeton band got what they deserved for the crimes of coming too close to a parade field and then, as if that were not enough, walking down the wrong street!! Where did they think they were, America?</p>
<p>Did anyone else’s back go up at the reference to “various brainy schools”? Who knows what really happened but that writer’s credibility was lost for me in that sentence.</p>
<p>I take side with Princeton.. Doesn’t seem as though Princeton did anything glaringly offensive other than marching across that Avenue…even then to say “they were lucky they weren’t killed” ?? W T F?</p>
<p>I know Stanford’s band tries to make its shows funny and sometimes the humor is offensive. The West Virginia incident comes to mind. I wasn’t aware other “brainy” schools did the same thing. </p>
<p>I never really got the band-show-as-satire idea.</p>
<p>I doubt the anger just erupted out of nowhere. There must have been something perceived as seriously offensive to illicit that type of reaction.</p>
<p>That does seem odd considering they aren’t rivals. When I was a member of the Trojan Marching Band, we used to get stuff thrown at us from Cal fans. But that was a rivalry, and the TMB is notoriously rowdy.</p>
<p>Scramble bands do have a bit of a reputation, most prominantly Stanford. They try to be clever, but many times just end up offensive. Stanford was banned from BYU after their show making fun of the LDS church. They also offended the Catholic church while mocking ND. I haven’t heard much about Princeton though.</p>
<p>I don’t think they committed any action that deserved the treatment they received. If the Citadel students felt they were being disrespected, there were better ways of handling the situation. Excuses will do them no good in the military.</p>
<p>^^^How can you be so judgmental not knowing what the source of anger was? I’m not defending anyone, but we don’t really know what happended there. </p>
<p>Btw, I’ve seen these scramble bands in action, and they can be extremely offensive. I think UVA is another school that dismantled theirs after one incident too many that embarrassed the university.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what the source of anger was. People need to know how to control their tempers and be more mature that means turning the other cheek. My parents taught me this and I’m sure their parents taught them this. I’m sure if they found something offensive, they could have thought of something better than what they did. </p>
<p>The offense against them is merely an excuse. These people especially need to control their tempers and be mature considering many of them will be joining the military and will be placed in situations where they must be in self-control.</p>
<p>Something of a collegiate clash of the Obama vs. Palin cultural divide.
I don’t think either Princeton or The Citadel had any sense of this when the game was penciled in. I understand that, unlike some Ivy schools, ROTC participation is permitted at Princeton. I’ve also heard that there are two ROTC students at Princeton.</p>
<p>The door swings both ways. People also need to recognize there can be consequences for the things they do, whether those consequences are commensurate to the offense or not. Every adult will be placed in situations where they must be in self-control, not just those in the military. And self-control is not just about one’s reactions, but how a person chooses to engage others in all ways. So yes, whatever initiated the conflict does indeed matter.</p>
<p>I disagree FLVADAD. It’s merely an excuse. Also, most adults aren’t going to possibly go into warzone where one slip up can cost many people their lives. Here’s a comment I saw that sums up my reaction.</p>
<p>"The school president knew of their antics. Reading is fundamental folks. Did did he warn the cadets? Did he ask the visiting band to try and respect certain traditions and areas of the school?</p>
<p>If he warned the cadets, then I would say the institution has a fundamental problem with leadership and control, if the cadets weren’t listening and threating others like thugs. From the account of the first poster, it sounds like they are far from a disciplined group of men who will be put in future positions of leadership.</p>
<p>The maturity level of the cadets is in question. Who cares if a bunch of yahoos, who the president knew was coming, walk around like idiots. Let them be idiots. The knee jerk Pavlovian response to get macho on them is silly. They lack control, not what I looked for in my military leaders. Definitely not a good trait to be missing when deployed.
Critical thinking is missing somewhere. Lack of judgment on the part of the TACs, cadets and the president added to the recipe for trouble. I would expect more from people who are potentially going to be in positions of life or death calls. The lack of judgment is terrible. The reported acts of the cadets lowers them to the level of the antics of the band that bothered them so. I’m glad some cadets apparently had the cool heads to stop the violence."</p>