HPforGrownups] HP and the democratic equilibrium(Re: Umbridge, brooms and DEs)

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 87138

> K
> As long as he/she was planning on giving it back at the end of term (or
> whenever the student went home) I wouldn't have a problem with it. If 
> she
> wants to keep it from being confiscated for any reason she shouldn't 
> have
> taken it to the school in the first place.

Wait.  By that reasoning, you could say the same thing about *anything* 
a student brings to school, right down to their *clothing*!  Esp. when 
attending a boarding school, there *must* be line drawn between what 
the school can and can't take from a student.  Lemme tell you, I 
attended a boarding school and had the administrators decided (in 
response to rule-breaking on my part) to start confiscating items that 
had no part in my rule-breaking (i.e. books, pillows, toothbrush, 
etc.), there would be quite an uproar.  And this *was* a boarding 
school in which the students had practically no rights whatsoever -- we 
weren't even legally allowed to have a Student Constitution (useless 
bit of fancy language for those who haven't heard of them, close cousin 
to the Mission Statement in terms of sheer meaninglessness).

In the violin analogy, presumably the violin had nothing to do with the 
student's rule-breaking, and therefore administrators would be out of 
line when confiscating it.  They might as well be confiscating her 
shoes or her hairbrush or her shower caddy.  It makes no sense.

In Harry's case, whether or not the broom was connected with the 
rule-breaking and punishment is more fuzzy.  It wasn't *directly* 
involved in the incident itself, but if the punishment was "no more 
Quidditch *ever*," Umbridge could argue that in order to enforce the 
ban, she'd *have* to confiscate the broom.  (And I do think Umbridge 
meant for Harry never to play any form of Quidditch again -- at least 
while she could help it.)

Laura (who is now stuck wondering if the administrators at her old 
school *could*, legally, confiscate her shower caddy.)