Here in the band we're faced with a little bit of a dilemma...

This past week was homecoming. This involves a number of traditions in the band, including but not limited to:

1. The freshmen write a saying on the underside of the bills of their beanies, which is something that each freshman earns in band camp in the summer by learning our names and the history of the band. For example here's my class in our beanies our freshman year: picture

2. There are 4 concrete "blocks" leading up to the band hall. At homecoming the freshmen have to strip off the fifth year's block and replace it with their own, for example here is our block, freshly painted: picture

3. After the football game, we have a band party which is for the most part band only, with some alumni typically showing up as well. It's one of two parties during the year which is sort of "you're a loser if you don't show up", the other being right after the freshmen get their beanies.

Now, here's the dilemma part... one of the freshmen was recently suspended for the rest of the year and lost all of his scholarships because he was stupid enough to hack into the public computers and log people's login info just "because I could".

Despite this, he continues to follow us around... taking pictures of everything and more importantly butting his nose into everything that's going on. He overheard people talking about the homecoming party and randomly showed up. He overheard other freshmen talking about their beanie slogan and showed up when they were painting them on to paint his. He saw the names on the block and whined and complained that he couldn't sign it... something that the band directly specifically told the other freshmen not to allow.

And the worst part of it all... the part that REALLY bothered me... was when he pulled out his saxophone in the stands and started playing with us.

1. I do not want people seeing him with us, leading them to think we're okay with his behavior

2. I do not want him to think we're okay with his behavior and

3. I do not associate with felons.

Every single person I have talked to about it has said how uncomfortable they were with him being there. Some were angry, confused... no one was okay with it.

So the question is, how do you tell someone they're not welcome in the group that they are obsessing over without completely crushing them?