Student Suspended for Call to Mom in Iraq

Newsday ^ | 05/06/05 | AP

[Responsibility1st]

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said. The 10-day suspension was issued because Kevin Francois was "defiant and disorderly" and was imposed in lieu of an arrest, Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham said. The confrontation Wednesday began after the 17-year-old junior got a call at lunchtime from his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, who left in January for a one-year tour with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion. Mobile phones are allowed on campus but may not be used during school hours. When a teacher told him to hang up, he refused. He said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom." Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction to the teacher's request. He said the teen used profanity when taken to the office. "Kevin got defiant and disorderly," Parham said. "When a kid becomes out of control like that they can either be arrested or suspended for 10 days. Now being that his mother is in Iraq, we're not trying to cause her any undue hardship; he was suspended for 10 days."

[beeler]

When a teacher told him to hang up, he refused.

That's all I need to know.

[Navy Patriot]

The school is under NO obligation to bend their rules just because Mom is calling from Iraq

A court of law will probably decide this point. And while mom could have planned better, she does have authority over her son and that supersedes the school.

This situation indicates mom tried to keep her son in classes at school while calling him at lunch, a reasonable plan. I personally would have had him remain at home for my call, and would have mailed him a written excuse to present the next day at school. In addition he would have written permission to engage in other activities outside the home after the call. This preempts idiot school administrators and denies them the daily attendance monies they lust after and is an object lesson.

[fabriclady]

You are so irrelevant.
Do your home work.

[Hunble]

I want to give this boy a calling card to call his Mom and I trust that some freepers in the area are all over this.

If you can track him down, notify me and others by FR mail. I would love to donate funds for such a cause.

That is an outstanding idea!

[BlueNgold]

From what I read -
The principal offered to allow mom to call the school directly and get the kid out of class if needed. That is more than reasonable and perhaps more than is needed.

If you want your kids swearing at principals and acting out - that's your deal. Not for me or mine. I would respect the school's policies, and I would demand that my family do the same. And any kid of mine swearing at a principal would have more to worry about when I got home than the school could even consider. Make book on that one.

We are PART of the law - the protectors and defenders of freedom. We are not above it, and we should not demand special priviliges. We SACRIFICE for the greater good - it's just part of the job.

[beeler]

He was told to get off the phone and he didn't. Case closed. If it was my kid, I would have called back from Iraq and told them to beat my kid for me.

[darkangel82]

Let's hope you never have children.

[Ranxerox]

The new FReepers will have nothing to do with independent thought and insolence like this. He should be put in a religious re-education center where he can be properly "oriented".

Scary how close that is to the truth.

Question: Are the new Freepers DU infiltrators, or just the stereotypical right-wing boogey man the left is always accusing us of being?

[BlueNgold]

See my post 166..
I think the school was more than wiling to make reasonable consideration - WITHIN the rules.

[fabriclady]

The school is not answering the telephone. I called the newspaper that ran the article. Someone is to contact me with information for sending a calling card. I will post the information when I get it.

I am angry now...so I have to be careful what I say. I am 70 years old and my anger usually is in control, but this was too much for this southern woman.

[beeler]

What's your point? I know a lot of adults who deserve corporal punishment.

[beeler]

Why? Because I expect them to do what I say, when I say it? One of the reasons our culture is so debased is because parents insist on negotiating with children, rather than enforcing authority.

[fabriclady]

"He was told to get off the phone and he didn't. Case closed. If it was my kid, I would have called back from Iraq and told them to beat my kid for me."

You will probably have a lot of pain in your life. How can you possibly know how much effort this Mother made to get a call through. I pity you.

[Hunble]

He was told to get off the phone and he didn't. Case closed. If it was my kid, I would have called back from Iraq and told them to beat my kid for me.

Obviously, you have never tried to call your family from another remote country, while in the military.

There are some times, when I wish we still had the draft.

[blu]

Are you the mom or the dad (having done a tour in Iraq)?

[Dan from Michigan]

If that was me, I'd be breaking a hand when the teacher grabbed for my phone.

Family trumps school. Family trumps idiotic power hungry bureaucrats.

[Sterco]

To: beeler
Let's hope you never have children.



AMEN TO THAT!!!

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.

You did mean to add a sarcasm tag, didn't you?

Michael Frazier

[beeler]

And I pity children who are raised with no boundaries, under the false impression that they can do whatever they want to whenever they want to do it.