It could be that the severity of the rule may be causing it to backfire on itself. Those who made it a straight red-card offense were, I'm sure, trying to make sure the punishment was so severe nobody would dare to commit the crime. However, due to the intensity and passion of the game, coupled with the everyday use of certain words by most teenagers, the odds of a "slip" in a heated moment are actually pretty high. I think most officials realize this and are reluctant to impose the penalty of a straight red card for an unintentional slip of the tongue. After all, having a team play short and having a player miss additional matches because of uttering a word, while a dangerous play that could cause severe injury only results in a caution, seems pretty ridiculous when you think about it. But, the HSL rule is clear--straight red for the first offense, with no allowances for warnings. So, an official has only three choices; blatantly break the rule by issuing a caution (not really an option), go ahead and issue the red with all of the penalties associated, or "not hear" the infraction to avoid imposing a match-outcome-affecting penalty. After all, from an officiating standpoint, it's "safer" to say you didn't observe an infraction than to acknowledge you observed it and then defend why you didn't take the prescribed action.
Personally, I think it would be much more productive for the League to allow for a caution for profanity; that way the issue could be addressed--officials could let the players know they are "serious" about enforcing the rule--without jumping straight into catastrophic consequences. I think we would see much more consistent enforcement of the rule, and a yellow with a few minutes on the bench is usually sufficient to make a player conscious of his/her behavior. Persistently infringing on the rule after a caution is certainly deserving of the red, and I think very few officials would have problems of conscience issuing the penalty if they were allowed to address it as a caution beforehand. When you make the rule so harsh that few peole are willing to enforce it, though, you defeat the purpose.
