Rat, I could go into a long winded discussion of pressure loss and the effect on performance, icing, etc. But an even simpler explanation would be this:
Ask the young man to consider the damage several six pound birds doing 250 knots did to heavy duty titanium fan and compressor blades (which, BTW, are designed to withstand bird strikes), then think about what sort of "chicken wire" would be required to stop those six pound birds doing 250 knots.