The MSA - Robotics Border Dispute

This article was last updated on: March 9th 2023

One of the storage rooms between the D2 and D4 classrooms. Out of frame is the door to the second storage room.

"Sealed on 1/9/2023 at 2:43pm by Jack Robke"

- A sign left by Jack Robke on a storage room door, 01/09/2023.

"Tensions mount in the D hallway. Some kid probably from MSA research wrote "robotics is for queers" on our whiteboard."

- Charlie Nolan in the System IV Group Chat, 03/07/2023.

Lore

The WHS Robotics Team has resided in the D2 classroom since 2019. Prior to that, it was used as a Spanish classroom, an MSA Research lab, Mr. Keith's classroom, and a biology classroom. MSA Research has permanently moved to room D4, after Robotics took over D2 and the hoard in room D4 was mostly cleaned out. Previously, MSA Research has been located around the D hallway and F hall, and some MSA Research students use the library. Extensive renovations to room D4 had taken place during early 2021. Lead by Mr. Rasmus, the MSA Research class mainly utilizes the D4 classroom for experiments. Between the D2 and D4 classrooms lie two storage rooms which link the rooms together. Prior to the renovsation of D4 by MSA Research, the two storage rooms had been used mostly as a dumping ground for random shit by the school, as well as a place for the robotics team to store unused items, and MSA Research used the space to store labcoats. Additionally, the storage room that serves as a passage between D2 and D4 is often where robotics members use cutting tools.

There was no dialog between MSA and Robotics over how to divide the space between their two rooms. Robotics members assumed that since the space is seldom used, both parties would have complete access/use to it at any time. For example, there is a mirror image of this situation on the other side of the D-hallway, in which the two storage rooms are shared by the classrooms D3 and D5. Robotics continued to use the two storage rooms as normal. Robotics takes up more physical space in the rooms than MSA, and neither group wants to put in the effort to clean out 30 years worth of garbage that is piled in the closet. Some robotics members have made efforts to clean the cabinets in the breezeway.

Initial Claim & Robotics Response

On January 9th 2023 at 2:43pm, MSA Research student Jack Robke put up a sign on the door to the second storage room. The sign states "Please Do Not Enter" and to contact him if you had questions. We know the exact date and time because the top right of the sign, it says "Sealed on 1/9/2023 at 2:43pm by Jack Robke". Robke had effectively claimed the entire storage room.

WHS Robotics was very displeased with Robke's actions. Coach Cody Reeve defaced his sign by writing "Please contact robotics coach for shared arrangements" on it, providing his own email address. Unfortunately for Robke, robotics still has keys to the storage room and was still able to access it without any hindrance. On January 19th, team member Collin Key partially tore the sign off the door. Weirdly, as of mid-January, it seemed Robke had not yet added anything of his own to the storage room.

Robke Responds & Withdraw of Claim

By February 2nd 2023, the dispute had been resolved. Annoyed that Cody defaced his sign by adding his own email, Robke wrote an additional message on the sign, claiming he was trying to contact the robotics team all school year and that we should have used his email to communicate with him. He also stated that we "ruined" his sign. Over the subsequent days, members of robotics talked to Robke about the situation. It was agreed that he would withdraw his claim, and Robke was assigned a different room. Following this, robotics members stole his sign and dishonored it by attaching it to a wooden box used for bot testing.

Continued MSA Encroachment

During the second to last week of February, it was observed that various items and materials had suddenly manifested themselves in the robotics room. One of which was a frame for a go-kart. Rouge MSA students had begun to use the robotics room as a place to store their projects.

On March 7th 2023, during a robotics meet, team members noticed that a student had wrote "robotics is for queers" on a robotics room whiteboard. Charlie reported this to Ian and Sean in the System IV Group Chat.