A little history:
In early 2005, Student Bonfire had a few run-ins with the local law enforcement and county officials.
The first was with Judge Simms. The Honorable Judge Simms was upset about the previous year's Bonfire because he felt like he was omitted from any official dealings, mass gathering permits, etc.. In 2005, he set a deadline for filing a mass gathering permit and informed Student Bonfire the day after the deadline was reached; having never let SB know that this window existed.
For those not involved with event planning, a mass gathering permit is required for all events 5 hours or more, consisting of 5,000 or more persons. It allows local law enforcement and other emergency services to muster enough personnel for the event, while letting the general population know that there is going to be a big event in their county.
Luckily for SB, Burn night festivites are never longer than a few hours and there are only over 5,000 persons for a small peroid of time. In short, the mass gathering permit does not apply.
The second issue was with the burn ban. A few weeks before Burn night was scheduled, the Brazos County Commissioners Court declaired that there was a burn ban in the county. The index that they use to inticate dryness was well past the "fire risk" mark, and they just did their jobs. Had SB decided to burn anyway at this point, they would just be guilty of violating a burn ban; a misdermeanor similar to a speeding ticket.
Instead, the local law enforcement that was "tipped off" by a newspaper article on Friday morning (36 hours before burn), filed an injunction against SB because SB intended to burn during a burn ban. An injunction is a legal "cease and desist" order that says "we know you are about to do something. Don't do it." Violating a legal injunction is a 1st degree misdermeanor and can result in jail time and serious fines.
SB got a lawyer involved, went to court, gave a deposition, and the judge decided that he would call for a meeting of the Commissioners. They could do three things:
1. If the Commissioners lifted the burn ban, the injunction would be lifted and SB could burn Bonfire without legal recourse.
2. If the commissioners voted to not lift the burn ban, the injunction would stay in place and lighting Bonfire would have resulted in arrest of those lighting the fire and all the rest of the stuff that goes with violating an injunction.
3. If the Commissioners did not meet, the injunction would be lifted but the burn ban would still be in place.
Situation number 3 happened and Chance volunteered to take the ticket for violating the burn ban. The Judge did not condone the wonton violation of the law and said that it would be up to the officers present to decide who and how many citations to write. Bonfire was lit the next day and the officers present decided to give all 7 of the Reds who lit Bonfire tickets.
1 week later, former students rallyed together and paid for all the fines.
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If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you can read this in English, thank a Soldier.
