hbeaton
Sr. Member
This is more of a thinking out loud kind of post.
A few days ago, in my local neighborhood, I found myself detecting in the backyard area of a middle school. I was having a good day, finding coins here and there. I was careful to put back the date as perfectly as I could. I used an old rag to pile the dirt on when I was digging. I carried a small trash bag with me to put any cans or other trash debris that I came along, to sort of maintain a semblence of cleaning up the area a little as I was taking the coins from it. A give and take if you will. Anyway, a custodian of the school came out to watch what I was doing, he watched as I put the dirt back in the holes and put the coin in my pouch. At first, he didn't say anything but then after I did that, he asked my what did I think I was doing? I told him that I was metal detecting and had found a coin (obviously) and that among other things was putting in trash I dug up in a bag to be thrown away. He gave me a really hard time about digging and messing up the ground and that it was illegal to hunt on school grounds.
I'm a patient man and I was calm and cool as he spoke. When he finished, I was going to just apologize and leave, but I didn't. I dont think in hindsight this was a bad move. I first told him that it is not "illegal" to hunt school grounds. As it's a public school, the school and anything around the school property are public goods that are shared communally and no one is excludable from it. I then showed him about what he thought disturbing the soil meant and he said it kills the grass and people could hurt themselves tripping over a hole. As this field was used by football players with quarter inch spikes all day long, i'm sure my detector holes pale in comparison to the way this field is abused. I then asked him to find another hole that I had dug. He looked for about thirty seconds and then found one. I then showed up the grid of my hunting area and about 10 other holes he simply walked over (not tripped).
In response to the legality, I asked him to accompany me about 50 feet to a sign at the entrance of the schoolyard ( I guess he never bothered to look). It was a sign from the locality saying that it was illegal to hit golf balls and that there we no dogs allowed pursuant to a local code that is on the sign. Nowhere did it say anything about metal detecting. He said well they can't put everything on a sign. I said metal detecting isnt an modern activity and that localities know about such things and if they thought it was a problem they would have put it somewhere. (maybe or maybe not). Lastly, I pulled the tax argument that I'm a student at Penn State which is the lifeblood of the town. I'm a resident of the county and pay taxes, vote in elections. Taxes which help pay his salary and maintain the school I was hunting at as some of our taxes are redistributed to local schools and parks, etc.
As this was ending, another man approached who I saw walking to his car. It was the superintendant of the school district. He at first gave me a look to suggest he was angry. He then asked who this man was and he introduced himself. The superintendant then basically scolded the custodian for what he said to me and that I indeed was right about the points I made. The custodian left and the superintendant informed me he was an avid MDer and that I could hunt here whenever I wanted and that anyone had a problem with that, come to him.
Alls well that ends well.
HH!
Don't take crap if you don't have to.
-Hunter
A few days ago, in my local neighborhood, I found myself detecting in the backyard area of a middle school. I was having a good day, finding coins here and there. I was careful to put back the date as perfectly as I could. I used an old rag to pile the dirt on when I was digging. I carried a small trash bag with me to put any cans or other trash debris that I came along, to sort of maintain a semblence of cleaning up the area a little as I was taking the coins from it. A give and take if you will. Anyway, a custodian of the school came out to watch what I was doing, he watched as I put the dirt back in the holes and put the coin in my pouch. At first, he didn't say anything but then after I did that, he asked my what did I think I was doing? I told him that I was metal detecting and had found a coin (obviously) and that among other things was putting in trash I dug up in a bag to be thrown away. He gave me a really hard time about digging and messing up the ground and that it was illegal to hunt on school grounds.
I'm a patient man and I was calm and cool as he spoke. When he finished, I was going to just apologize and leave, but I didn't. I dont think in hindsight this was a bad move. I first told him that it is not "illegal" to hunt school grounds. As it's a public school, the school and anything around the school property are public goods that are shared communally and no one is excludable from it. I then showed him about what he thought disturbing the soil meant and he said it kills the grass and people could hurt themselves tripping over a hole. As this field was used by football players with quarter inch spikes all day long, i'm sure my detector holes pale in comparison to the way this field is abused. I then asked him to find another hole that I had dug. He looked for about thirty seconds and then found one. I then showed up the grid of my hunting area and about 10 other holes he simply walked over (not tripped).
In response to the legality, I asked him to accompany me about 50 feet to a sign at the entrance of the schoolyard ( I guess he never bothered to look). It was a sign from the locality saying that it was illegal to hit golf balls and that there we no dogs allowed pursuant to a local code that is on the sign. Nowhere did it say anything about metal detecting. He said well they can't put everything on a sign. I said metal detecting isnt an modern activity and that localities know about such things and if they thought it was a problem they would have put it somewhere. (maybe or maybe not). Lastly, I pulled the tax argument that I'm a student at Penn State which is the lifeblood of the town. I'm a resident of the county and pay taxes, vote in elections. Taxes which help pay his salary and maintain the school I was hunting at as some of our taxes are redistributed to local schools and parks, etc.
As this was ending, another man approached who I saw walking to his car. It was the superintendant of the school district. He at first gave me a look to suggest he was angry. He then asked who this man was and he introduced himself. The superintendant then basically scolded the custodian for what he said to me and that I indeed was right about the points I made. The custodian left and the superintendant informed me he was an avid MDer and that I could hunt here whenever I wanted and that anyone had a problem with that, come to him.
Alls well that ends well.
HH!
Don't take crap if you don't have to.
-Hunter
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