Citation for Running on Track

No, but you can punch it in its throat.

you should have gone back and told him off after he called you a dip sh*t and if he tried to write you a citation you could just run away.

ask permission from the AD to use the track, or at leat know the AD's name and use it.

The track is probably locked to keep people off of it, just a thought. If you don't attend school there you have no god given right to use the track. Either get permission or deal with the consequences. I will say that the rent-a-cop was a dipshit though.

common cents wrote:

The track is probably locked to keep people off of it, just a thought. If you don't attend school there you have no god given right to use the track. Either get permission or deal with the consequences. I will say that the rent-a-cop was a dipshit though.

First of all, God given right. If you are going to pull that stupid phrase out then at least capitalize the word God. Second, alumni of a school are usually allowed to use the facilities and should be. I mean the guy was not there being disruptive. Tell the guy nicely that he should get permission and let it be. Do be an a s s hole about it.

it is a right, unless it's a private school.

public schools have community tracks. therefore they are open to the public.

Kid. It's not your track. The Kampus Kops asked you to leave. You leave.

You are not the center of the universe. Your workout certainly can be done anywhere, and the roads are free. Use them.

You're right about one, and only one thing. This is typical Letsrun material.

I went to go use the high school gym at my old school. As an alumni I am entitled to it because again its a public school. I just went in through the window. Hopefully they never get upset for me using a locked gym in a public school.

I just can't help but think that your account of what occurred has been somewhat fabricated. I have a hard time understanding how this "school police" officer, when seemingly only slightly provoked, would find it necessary to hit you with a barrage of obscenities. Either you were a real wise-ass to him and are withholding that information, or his alleged statements directed toward you are completely untrue.

Either way, there's a reason the track is locked up and you probably shouldn't have been on there in the first place.

The thing that really bothers me about all of it is, I come back to help the track and cross teams during my off time and during breaks, especially in the summer when I run with them and show up to the state meet to cheer them on. I don't think I'm the center of the universe, I just believe if other schools have their tracks open, why not keep our's open? I know the administration's goal is to keep vandals off the track, but by no means am I a vandal. Finally, throughout high school, I was never a troublemaker, by no means at all. I was never in trouble once at the school and was recognized by much of the faculty as a good person with good intentions. I understand the guy was doing his job, but I believe he crossed the line to a degree in an attempt to demean me by calling me "stupid" and "dipshit."

Also, by saying "we don't want you here," I believe he is including himself in a body, such as the administration or school board. This is definitely something the school board would frown upon.

I do realize he's "school police" therefore he probably has a bad outlook on students, I attempted to be understand in that. But somebody being inquisitive and a smart ass to the least degree, if any, I think he should give some slack. I know I'd sympathize with a alumnus that comes back to the school and community and contributes his time.

Ears2Yoo wrote:

I just can't help but think that your account of what occurred has been somewhat fabricated. I have a hard time understanding how this "school police" officer, when seemingly only slightly provoked, would find it necessary to hit you with a barrage of obscenities. Either you were a real wise-ass to him and are withholding that information, or his alleged statements directed toward you are completely untrue.

Either way, there's a reason the track is locked up and you probably shouldn't have been on there in the first place.

I'm not fabricating anything of this story. At first when he got out of his car, he seemed to be a fairly nice man. Suddenly, when I was inquiring about the track and presented my situation of not being able to run a hard workout on the roads without injury, something lit up in him. What I said is all in my first post, I left nothing out of the conversation. I know he might be prejudiced against students and alumni because often we have students thrown out permanently from our basketball games. But to take it out on somebody that was doing as little as stretching and running a workout?

Funny story, this break, I actually went back to my alma mater too, but to use the science lab. As an alum, I figured I should be allowed to use any part of the school I wished, so I invited myself in. Some dumbass locked up the building though, so I broke one of the windows to get in. I tried not to use too much of their chemical supply, but I think I left the gas supply turned on at the station I used. Took a few crates of semi-expensive glassware that I couldn't afford, but needed. Oh well, they can't do anything about it, public property.

WRITE THAT LETTER!!!

"Run the workout on the roads and take your bill for a stress fracture to the judge with your citation you'll get next time."

This is obviously a complete fabrication. Do you really think a dumb angry cop is going to use the term "stress fracture" in a sentence? That terminology is not in your typical non-runner's vocabulary.

Nice try!

greg, i understand where you're coming from but this guy took nothing. his getting on the track vandalized no property either as your hypothetical situation would. the guy who mentioned the gym has a better argument. however, the facet that the track is outside and isn't connected to the school i think makes it a different situation (and actually i've done the basketball deal before except that it was open over break and the janitors had no problem with it. i'd send a letter man. honestly i wouldn't have help my tongue but at this point your best bet is to explain the situation to the school. also don't question there decision to lock up the track, simply ask if they can keep it open and possibly lock up the door that you opened so that no one could take anything that they may be storing inside that room.

Keep vandals off of the track? Umm, I think the fence is meant to keept the football field untouched.

You're definitely right about that, but the track was just put in 3 years ago. Funny thing is, when they'll leave it open during long periods throughout the summer, kids with bikes will go onto the track. I've witnessed this once and I asked the kids nicely to bike somewhere besides the track. They gave me a scowl and decided to keep biking. After this, I told them, "you're going to have to get off the track, the bikes will ruin the track and mark it." Eventually the kids got off.

My proposal isn't to question anything the school is doing, rather suggest we have a spinning gate that allows only one person in at at time and would disallow bikes to enter through the entrance that way.

To the guy who said it must be fabricated because of the stress fracture. He told me to do it on the roads and I said that I would get a stress fracture sprinting on the roads like that and that was his reply.

The people comparing use of a high school track to helping oneself to a chemistry lab are missing a piece of cognitive ability known as "logic." There is no comparison.

I have done the same thing many times before. I have snuck onto school fields that were unreasonably locked. There was only one grass field, only one, on a campus of thousands of students within reasonablr distance. I questioned the AD who replied with a garbage answer of "maintaining" the fields for the use of the soccer team. Apparently the AD feared irreversible damage to the field based on my running barefoot around the perimeter. AD's are not always sharp.

The same goes for tracks. Unless this is an Olympic stadium that they are prepping for a Golden League meet and which needs to be cleared out to arrange the water barriers for Shaheen, screw them. Climb the fence, crawl under the bleacher gaps, it's a track, not a chemistry lab in a locked school. It is an open air exercise facility and HS tracks, almost without exception, are open to the community. Enforcing rules on a 400m open air oval about who can or cannot use it is nonsense, and those who reply otherwise with idiotic analogies to entering locked buildings are being stupid for the sake of being stupid.