Evel Knievel Stunts Banned in Indian Schools

BBC News is reporting that schools in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are being instructed not to stage events with “risky” stunts.  What is a “risky” stunt?  Try one in which a martial arts trainer drives a motorcycle over the hands of elementary school students. Another stunt involved the bike being ridden over a plank laid on top of a girl lying on the ground.

The show, at a school in Villupuram, was stopped after protests from the relative of a government minister.  In a classic “cover your ass “moment authorities said parents of students had pressured the school into staging the event. Mr K. Devarajan, head of Tamil Nadu’s elementary school department told the BBC: “Though there are instructions to schools regarding safety of the students, such events sometimes happen because of overwhelming demand from parents.”

I’m guessing the stunts are way more popular than doing yet another bake sale or having kids sell those silly magazine subscriptions door-to-door.

“They (the parents) told the principal that their children had been trained in such martial arts,” Mr Devarajan said. One of the parents present told a newspaper that they had consented to the event. “The students offered to lie down on their own,” S Ilangovan said.

I’ve taken martial arts, but I’m not familar with Kawasaki Jiu-Jitsu.  I don’t know of any school of martial arts that incorporates an adult riding a motorcycle over a child as a demonstration of anything.

And with the parents encouraging the whole thing, these kids need to ask– “What the hell is wrong with my parents!”