Sure, the lunkhead parents of the Ipswich boys lacrosse players who were suspended for smoking graduation cigars (see photo above) missed an opportunity to teach their kids some “life lessons” about integrity, as the Globe’s Matt Porter writes. But didn’t adult school authorities also miss an opportunity to teach “life lessons” about making punishments proportionate to alleged crimes/rule breaking? That a puritanical one-strike-and-you’re-out approach to rules isn’t always the fair and smart way to deal with youths? … In the Ipswich case, there’s a difference between teens developing bad lifetime habits by regularly smoking butts and kids smoking one-time celebratory cigars on a beach after high-school graduation. Isn’t the former what the MIAA no-tobacco rule is all about, not the latter? … What puritanical dummies. … 

Btw: You know who comes out of this absurd controversy looking pretty good? The Ipswich lacrosse players who sat out the game in solidarity with their suspended teammates, forcing the team’s playoff forfeiture. They showed adults a late-in-life lesson about standing up to stupid rules and disproportionate punishments. …

Photo above of Ipswich criminals  students via CBS News. It’s kind of a classic coming-of-age photo, isn’t it? …

Update — 6.15.26 –– A reader writes that the IHS controversy is indeed a “reminder of our puritanical roots and how they evolve with the times.”

Update II — 6.17.26 — The WSJ is on the story. I liked this quote from a local lawyer: “Come on, how many times you’ve been pulled over and a cop has said, ‘Ahh, go ahead?’ … There is always discretion, right?” Nope. Not in ‘America’s Best-Preserved Puritan Town.’