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."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Update......

[BJungNan]

The headline is wrong. The smart-mouth got suspended for being defiant, disorderly, using profanity, getting out of control, etc.

The teacher had no business grabbing his phone. It is understandable that the kid would react that way even if he should not have.

The teacher had authority, could have waited to exercise it and administered the proper punishment but instead acted like a child by grabbing the phone away from the kid.

[BJungNan]

How do you know that? There's nothing in the article about the teacher being too rigid. The teacher may have asked nicely and several times to end the call....we don't know.

The teacher grabbed for the phone. We know that. And that is enough to tell me the teacher was wrong. The teacher obviously did not have the maturity to deal with the situation.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Ahem, we have proof he was not: he obeyed his mother.

She instructed him to be rude and vulgar to school authorities?

[BJungNan]

It's part of the disciplinary process that leads to good citizenship and the ability to function successfully in the world.

Rules should not always be senselessly followed...or administered.

[HiTech RedNeck]

NEXT!

[monkapotamus]

This is a difficult situation. Even when I was in highschool 15 years ago, in a highly respectable top flight school district, teachers were sleeping with students (this isn't just a recent phenomena), administrators were corrupt, students were threatened, those in power weren't always right. I think this kid was justified in his reaction. His mother is in an environment where her life could be in peril and he rarely gets to talk to her - come on!
On the other hand, if the school isn't strict about their rule enforcement, it makes it harder to enforce the rule for others. Anyway, I would have done the same (as the kid) I suppose.

[gakrak]

Wouldn't you like to know if the teacher was a antiwar activist. Then I could understand the whole of what happened. Amen.

[Robert_Paulson2]

the educrats don't believe that....
'the parent's authority is superior to... ' and so on.


typical socialist educrats.

[panaxanax]

"If your kid has a bad accident at home and has a life threatening injury do you obey the speedlimit on the way to hospital?"

ABSOLUTLY PERFECT EXAMPLE!!!! JUST PERFECT.

[panaxanax]

"It is impossible to live within the military and not learn to respect authority"

RIGHT YOU ARE and there is no higher 'authority' than a MOM. Keep up the good work.

[freepatriot32]

aol onlnie poll results so far

Did the teen deserve suspension?

No 80%

Yes 20%

Total Votes: 149,820

[fabriclady]

The school is still reporting only what they think will make them look better. Not one word has been reported about the teacher that grabbed the boys telephone. So really the school has made no attempt to remedy the situation.
I will call the school again Monday. Reducing the suspension was a help to the boy, but still its on his record. So this is not good enough.

[Mrs.Nooseman]

They are in High School not Elementary School!

[Mrs.Nooseman]

What is your problem?

I would have done the same thing if my ONLY parent was in a war zone and I only got to talk to that parent every so often!

You are just as narrow minded as those School Administrators!

It's a stupid policy anyway,since he was on his LUNCH and not in Class disrupting the Teacher!

[auggy]

"If I was the teacher or administrator I would have made an exception in this case - tell the kid he can stay on the line but go out in the hall or something. I get the sense there may be more to this than is in the story."

He was already outside.

They didn't tell how irate the teachers were when he refused to hang up. That's what is missing in this story.

[Conservative Infidel]

last para is my oint - sounds like the kid is blaming this for failure. he can and should do better.

I don't know about your school district, but in mine, if any student misses more than five days of class in any one quarter-without a note from a doctor, they automatically get an F for the quarter. A 10 day suspension would certainly get him an F for the quarter in my school district.

[KneelBeforeZod]

Glenn Beck might pick up on this...

[keats5]

School personnel legally get their authority over students because they stand in loco parens, or in the parent's place in the parent's absence. A school authority has no right to put this kid in a position where he has to disobey his mother, especially under these compelling circumstances. It's not like his mother was advising her son to do anything which would endanger anyone else.

[ArmyTeach]

My daughter was in Iraq for a year, 2003-04. Her company allowed to to take her laptop, so we were able to communicate fairly regularly. It was a real blessing that probably saved our sanity. Phones were and still are very hard to access.
This young man has had a few too many traumatizing experiences in his young life. He vented his frustration. 20/20 hindsight, he probably could have gone to the Spencer High administration, explained and asked for an exception to the rule. But haven't we all been blindsided by the unexpected? Now added to his frustrations is the lack of trust in his school. Hu-ah, Spencer.