Where I went to
school, the Red Star was much more than just a
newspaper. For all
males, it was a life-saver.
When
freshmen are welcomed into the
SAS community, they are all handed the
student handbook. The corridor sits around in a faculty member's apartment, and go through the
rules and regulations together. One section of the
handbook is as follows:
"When students are in need of total privacy while studying or resting during a sick day, they may place a white sheet of paper on their door, to alert other students to not disturb them during this time of need...known as a 'White Flag'"
Needless to say, this was
vehemently ignored. Most
White Flags were written on,
torn down, and
barged in on.
And then came Ian.
Ian was a senior on my
sophomore corridor. Like most teenage males in
boarding schools, he was...well,
sexually repressed. Like many of us, he enjoyed
masturbation (let's be honest, who doesn't). However, he was tired of people barging in on him while
going at it. Ian alerted the enitre corridor that, when they see a '
White Flag' with a big
Red Star on it, it meant he was
masturbating, and that anyone intruding would
be in for a surprise.
For the first few times, nobody payed any
respect to the
Red Star. However, when an
innocent troublemaker sophomore opened the
Red Star marked door to Ian's room, he was shocked to find him pants-down, lying on his bed, violently
jacking off. And this little sophomore cried and ran away, alerting his friends that, yes, the
Red Star really did mean the resident of the room was
taking the self-serve route.
SO, from then on, the
Red Star was respected to mean that the owner was going about their
naughty business, and was far more respected than the original '
White Flag'.
Rumor has it that a few females adopted the
Red Star as well, but that was only left up to the
imaginations of we sophomore boys.