From an article on that Yale decision to ban swords on stage:
It was six hours before opening night. Sarah Holdren, director of a Yale University student production, had just entered the theater for a routine pre-performance errand when the man who runs the hall gave her an update: In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, a Yale administrator decided that she didn’t want any weapons used or portrayed during theatrical productions.
Holdren was perplexed. Her show, Red Noses, is set in the Middle Ages and includes metal swords and daggers. But they are stage props. And there were no guns.
“I understand the university’s need to react to Virginia Tech and display sensitivity, but dealing with it this way is ineffective,” she said in an interview Friday.