The school district's risk management department would shut this down for sure... IF they fully understand the danger. Some districts are well informed on rigging and some are not. There was a recent thread about a production of Peter Pan where the district said they couldn't fly students even WITH the services of a professional flying company.
I have to admit that 10+ years ago when I was a young and dumb T.D. I did something similar to this. Thank God, no one was injured. Fortunately I was smart enough to rig it in a little safer way than you describe, but not by much (It still involved flying an actor 8' in the air). No one at the school ever questioned the safety of it. My entire administration saw the show and said it was fabulous. Parents said it was a great effect. Everyone who should have said, "you know that isn't a very good idea" instead told me I did a fabulous job. People just assume that you know how to do this sort of thing safely. And I assumed because my College T.D. flew a person on a swing, that I knew how to do it safely. Looking back on it what we did in college wasn't very smart either.
The point is these things build momentum. It's hard for your T.D. to stop and think this over clearly and consider the forces he is applying to a system in a way it's not designed to work. Everyone's expecting something great. Now he's got "a kid" telling him what he is doing is a bad idea. Let's face it Michael, if you hadn't been hanging out around here for so long you would probably think it's a good idea too. So It's really hard to slow this down.
Any chance of getting your T.D. to read this thread?
I have to admit that 10+ years ago when I was a young and dumb T.D. I did something similar to this. Thank God, no one was injured. Fortunately I was smart enough to rig it in a little safer way than you describe, but not by much (It still involved flying an actor 8' in the air). No one at the school ever questioned the safety of it. My entire administration saw the show and said it was fabulous. Parents said it was a great effect. Everyone who should have said, "you know that isn't a very good idea" instead told me I did a fabulous job. People just assume that you know how to do this sort of thing safely. And I assumed because my College T.D. flew a person on a swing, that I knew how to do it safely. Looking back on it what we did in college wasn't very smart either.
The point is these things build momentum. It's hard for your T.D. to stop and think this over clearly and consider the forces he is applying to a system in a way it's not designed to work. Everyone's expecting something great. Now he's got "a kid" telling him what he is doing is a bad idea. Let's face it Michael, if you hadn't been hanging out around here for so long you would probably think it's a good idea too. So It's really hard to slow this down.
Any chance of getting your T.D. to read this thread?