Brickbat: A Little Appeasement Never Hurt

Henry DeGroot thought it would be a good idea to write pro-democracy messages on the notebook of a fellow student. Given that DeGroot was attending a school in Beijing on a semester abroad program, he shouldn't have been surprised that school officials gave him five hours of detention. But he was surprised when he got home and was barred from attending his prom by the Newton, Massachusetts, school system. Newton officials say DeGroot embarrassed the principal of the Chinese school and may have endangered the relationship between the school systems.