by Mr. DeMarisTuesday, March 4, 2014
After the outrage over the scam perpetrated by four citizen of Room 27 last week, today's court decision left many people dissatisfied, but many parties on both sides seemed content with the ruling. The arguments for and against the legality and ethics of the scheme took over an hour, and after deliberating for more than half an hour, the court handed down a decision that neither party should have the money involved.
In an unexpected ruling, the court dismissed the charges of misusing study hall time, disrespecting opinions, and causing outbursts leveled by the prosecution against the defendants. According to the law as it stands, causing outbursts is not illegal, but participating therein may be; the court chose not to press charges against the class as a whole for the outburst they created after discovering the effects of the plot. The court agreed, to an extent, with the defense's argument that the law stating "Everyone is responsible for their own materials" (Article IV, Section 6) means individuals are responsible for their own money, not just classwork, but extended that to apply to the defendants as well. Just as the plaintiffs should have been more careful with their signatures, so too the defendants should have been more responsible with their clever plans. Thanks to the charges of bullying leveled under Law 8, the official definition of bullying was established as "to use intimidating, disturbing, or superior language or behavior to disrupt another person's composure." The court struggled to decide whether or not the inherently deceptive practices of the four conspirators constituted bullying, but certainly agreed that it was unethical.
In sum, the real victim was the classroom order, and the true perpetrator was Kyle, who masterminded the plot and used his position as notary to build confidence in his victims. Therefore, the court decided to take back the $212 in question from the conspirators and place it, instead, in the party fund, where it could benefit the class as a whole. Scarlet, who admitted to bullying behavior while under oath, was given a $10 fine. In addition, the court leveled $80 in fines to numerous people in the room for distracting and speaking out of turn during the proceedings.
It is the opinion of this reporter that the real winner in this case was the government of Room 27, which built up more power with its new laws making fine print in the classroom illegal (see here for the current laws), and took $90 from the citizens. Hopefully, this will serve as a deterrent for future conspiracies, but for right now it has only broken the trust of some citizens in the lawmaking ability of the notary and his allies.
