Posted on 05/06/2005 10:15:14 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
Mother's call gets son in hot water
BY ANGELIQUE SOENARIE Staff Writer
Kevin Francois gave up his lunch break to talk to his mother, but it ended up costing him the rest of the school year.
Francois, a junior at Spencer High School in Columbus, was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch while talking to his mother who is deployed in Iraq, he said.
His mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, left in January for a one-year tour and serves with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
"This is our first time separated like this," said Francois, 17, on Thursday.
Bates came to Fort Benning with her son from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. She enrolled him at Spencer in August. Since her deployment overseas, Francois, whose father was killed when he was 5 years old, lives with a guardian who has five children in Columbus.
The incident happened when Francois received a call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. Francois said he went outside the school building to get a better reception when his mother called. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to get off the phone. But he didn't.
According to the Muscogee County School District Board of Education's policy, students are allowed to have cell phones in school, but cannot use them during school hours.
"They are really allowed to have those cell phones so that after band or after chorus or after the debate and practices are over they have to coordinate with the parents," said Alfred Parham, assistant principal at Spencer. "They're not supposed to use them for conversating back and forth during school because if they were allowed to do that, they could be text messaging each other for test questions."
Francois said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."
Francois said the teacher tried to take the phone, causing it to hang up.
The student said he then went with the teacher to the school's office where he surrendered his phone. His mother called again at 12:37 p.m. and left a message scolding her son about hanging up and telling him to answer the phone when she calls.
Control issue
Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction when he was asked to give up the cell phone and told about the school's cell phone policy.
"Kevin got defiant and disorderly with Mr. Turner and another assistant principal," Parham said Thursday. "He got defiant with me. He refused to leave Mr. Turner's office. 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."
Wendall Turner is another assistant principal at Spencer.
Parham said the student used profanity when he was taken into the office. He said he tried to work out something with the student. But Francois said he was too frustrated he couldn't answer the phone when his mother called him the second time.
"I even asked Kevin, 'You know we can try to work something out to where if your mother wants to call you she can call you at the school,'" Parham said. "So we've tried to work with Kevin and we're going to continue to try to work with Kevin and his mother and his relatives. In the course of good order and discipline, we have to abide by our policy."
Francois admitted he was partially at fault for his behavior but said he should have been allowed to talk to his mother.
"I was mad at the time, but I feel now maybe I should've went about it differently," he said. "Maybe I should've just waited outside to pick up the phone. But I don't I feel I should've changed any of my actions. I feel I was right by not hanging up the phone."
For Francois, he said he gets to hear from his mother once a month, and phone calls vary depending on when she can use the phone in Iraq. Francois said his mother calls as late as 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and tries to catch him during hours he's awake. He said the phone call Wednesday was the first time she called him while he was at school.
Francois, who said he's been struggling with his grades in school, wants to go back to school and finish the rest of his year. He fears he may have pay for summer school because of his punishment.
"My grades had been low, but I was bringing them up. My grades were coming back up. On one of my report cards I had like a 'F' in one of my classes, but I brought it back up to a low 'C.' This just brought me all the way down."
© 2005 Ledger-Enquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.ledgerenquirer.com
Zero Tolerance for service member's families.
Amazing. Stalin would be proud.
Our school system is run by Marxists.
Yet another example of public school buffoonery.
If I had been the student, the charge would have been "assault and battery", not just disorderly conduct.
If I am going to get arrested, it is gonna be worth the hassle.
This has already been posted and somebody actually said it was right for the kid to be suspended because he was out of control. Let me tell you something, if this happened to me, I'd get out of control as well. It's time for some common sense to be brought back into schools. This zero tolerance crap is destructive.
Gee, sounds like the idiot liberals that run the school implemented zero-tolerance and don't have any common sense. How about we all just enlighten them?
I'm looking for the school and school board phone numbers now, but if someone else has them, would you please post them?
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Principal apologizes for smoking at school ("I'm sorry" over intercom)
PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 25 (UPI) -- A Providence high school principal who suspended a student for posting a picture of her smoking on his Web site has apologized to the student body.
Eliazar Velasquez, 17, caught Elaine Almagno lighting up on the grounds of Central High School, a violation both of Rhode Island state law and school district policy, the Providence Journal reported. She ordered him to remove the photograph from his Web site and suspended him when he refused.
On Tuesday, the sophomore was offered reinstatement but only if he complied with the removal order. On Wednesday, Superintendent of Schools Melody Johnson went public, saying that Almagno, "a veteran administrator with a 25-year unblemished record," had made a mistake.
Johnson said that she ordered Central High officials to remove the suspension from Velasquez's record and that Almagno had apologized over the intercom for smoking on school grounds.
Velasquez told the newspaper that, when he returned to school, the vice principal advised him to find some better way of expressing disagreements and that Almagno did not speak to him at all.
That other thread poster looks like a Troll to me.
I said it was right for the kid to get suspended. Talking to his mom had nothing to do with the suspension. The kid nearly went postal. He should have been arrested. Read the story and try not to get side-tracked by his mom being in Iraq.
If I lived in Columbus I would not rest until every official involved was removed.
Zero Tolerance requires Zero Thought.
I think this school needs a good old fashioned FReeping!!
DBR - are you here?? We need a good old Dogpile going!
Why do you say that?
The Teacher should have used a little common sense, and afterwards tell him no more such calls during those hours.
I bet if he just lied and told the "administrators" his mom was a trannie & was giving him verbal instructions on fisting, he would have been alright.
When confronted by the teacher, he should have said that he was negotiating for a lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered activist to come to the school to speak. Then he would have been left alone.
I can tell you from experience that in theater it can be sometimes very difficult and time consuming for a soldier to actually get to a phone and place a call overseas (not to mention expensive). I can understand why both mother and son would be upset.
Have you noticed that these over the top school PC crap is always directed at people associated with conservative views ?
-R
Xena -- I am presuming at your young age (relative to mine) that you don't have teenagers. Cell phones are really helpful for parents, not just the kids.
I have a wonderfully mature and responsible HS senior for whom we provide a cell phone. He likes it AND it makes our lives much nicer.
"need" might just reside more with the parents than the youngster.
Just my opinion.
p.s. nobody won in this event.
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