re: Why was the kid wrong for smirking?

As soon as the protestors started yelling at the kids, the dumarse sponsors should have rounded the kids up and left. I blame the sponsors for letting this deal get out-of-hand. And, yes, I know about taking larger groups of high school kids to DC and Boston and LA and Chicago (I did it at least twice a year for almost 25 years) and I know how those situations should be handled. If their sponsors had acted properly, the situation would never have become a story. I don't blame the kids as they were just acting like 15-16-17 year old boys.