Well, you need a strong reason for the punishment, but if even the police concluded this is an incident of carelessness, what else can the school do? The most important thing is that the school doesnt have evidence to prove that the kids caused the incident with an evil purpose. If so, what reason can the school use to punish student? The description from the newspaper article? No kidding please... It is definitely inappropriate and illogical if the school give punishment to students without any strong and reliable evidences. Please kindly dont have a view that the school can punish students in any circumstances, especially in nowadays...
Well, does anyone get hurt in this incident? Im sure if someone get injured seriously, the kids will more likely to be given more punishment, but bear in mind this is not the case. Take what you mention as an example as well, if the kid drop the vase down to the ground without hurting any people, the punishment would not be the same definitely. Disciplinary punishment is a serious issue and it could always only be used when the incident is serious, such as, the kids cause the incident purposely or result in a serious chaos. Yet, you never know if the kids do it purposely or not unless they admit it or you see it with your eyes. In the case, the kids said (as least to the school) that they make it carelessly without purpose, and I am sure no school discipline members witness the whole incident, then in what way can the school present a disciplinary punishment to the students?
That's why I actually think that even the SYU student may not get the whole picture...
But the reality is, the boardmates merely believe what the newspaper stated, which might probably have biased perspective. Isn't it fair to the other party, at least the school?