Posted on 09/27/2005 4:33:37 AM PDT by billorites
FARGO - A ninth-grader here has been banned from his school's assemblies after asking a sensitive question to a U.S. Army pilot.
Phil Sannes also had to apologize to speaker Michael Durant after he asked the "Black Hawk Down" helicopter pilot on Thursday whether he had been raped during his capture by hostile forces in Somalia.
"He asked a fair, hard-balled question," said Phil's dad, Jon Sannes. "I don't know why he's being punished."
"I felt the question posed was inappropriate at that time and that place," said Peggy Stibbe, assistant principal.
In 1993, Durant flew a Blackhawk in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Army pilot was shot down and captured for 11 days. His story inspired the movie, "Black Hawk Down."
He spoke to more than 500 eighth- and ninth-grade students at the Fargo middle school.
The pilot talked about being shot down and captured, but told students there were details he didn't want to share, Stibbe said.
"He knew for a ninth-grade group he could only take it so far," she said.
At the end of the presentation, Durant opened the floor to student questions. That's when Phil Sannes asked his.
"I just wanted to know," the ninth-grader said. "It was a serious question."
Durant said it was a good question, but he wouldn't answer it.
Jon Sannes said forcing his son to apologize and to miss future assemblies violates his son's right to free speech. A school is supposed to encourage students to think and ask questions, he said.
Jon Sannes said he and his son talk about world news events at home.
"You hear about people being beheaded and tortured during war," he said. "My son just had a question about that."
Stibbe said the school usually schedules only one assembly a year.
It is along the same lines as people asking a combat vet "Did you kill anyone?"
Sometimes curiosity overcomes propriety.
It was a good question, and Durant answered it appropriately.
The Ass. Principal Peggy is wrong. She's now made it a bigger deal than it was.
The assistant principal doesn't want her students to know the truth about "The Religion of Peace."
The refusal to answer should have been a sufficiant answer
Agreed.
I agree. Seems a bit tasteless but at the end of the day, if the kid wants to know- what's he supposed to do and who else can he ask? I can't see punishing the kid for asking.
Hmmm someone needs a visit from Anti Hyperbole Man.
Whenever I tell someone that my husband is in the 82nd ABN, that is almost invariably the first thing out of their mouth...unless I'm talking to a military veteran or family member of a veteran. It's revolting that they think of my husband that way before anything else, especially considering that the folks who do it love to state how "non-judgemental" they are. I even had my brother ask me, in a state of utmost curiosity, at the dinner table one night, when I visited home. He's almost 30, BTW, so he's definitely old enough to know better.
The fascination of some people with the intensely personal and private is indicative of our loss of manners and respect for others.
The kid asked the question and Durant declined to answer. The truth came out and the assistant principal decided to punish the kid for exposing the truth about muslims.
I thnk the reason he did not say no because the question will be asked of females who get captured and they will not be able to say no.
So the military simply avoids answering yes or no.
This kid violated the unassailable fortress of political correctness.
Wouldn't want to associate homosexual rape with Islamic jihadists!
I disagree. We need to teach young people manners.
"In The Company of Heroes"
A true story by Michael J. Durant CW4 (Ret)
A good book. I got mine signed by him with a nice little note.
The introduction is written by Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down".
I don't know if Durant has written a book but something tells me he has. If he addressed the issue in a book (I'm not saying he has) why not address it before people who could be in the military in a few short months or years. It's nothing they don't already know about anyway. It's as another poster addressed, they need to know the truth about what the civilized world is up against.
There could be things we don't know about what was going on at the time. If the young people weren't taking his remarks seriously - joking around, etc. - I would probably sidestepped the question too.
Kevin Sites wrote a "story" on Somalia that appeared on Yahoo yesterday. He blamed everything on America and had nothing but pity for the muslim savages that rule Somalia.
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs999
"The fascination of some people with the intensely personal and private is indicative of our loss of manners and respect for others."
Absolutely. I don't know why the 'answer' is being debated here...the issue is the kid's sense of self entitlement and lack of regard for others feelings. It didn't bother the kid that the soldier might be embarassed. Didn't even cross his mind. And if it did...it certainly didn't matter to the kid. The world revolves around "me" and what "I" want, in today's youth.
You seem to be relying upon the assumption that Durant has addressed the issue of being raped ina book that he either has written, or is in the process of writing. If addressing the subject in a book would make the question fair game, then if Durant wrote a book and did not mention rape, would that then make the question inappropriate?
We're just going to have to respectfully disagree here. I don't believe that the child wanted to know so that he could make a decision about going into the military. Personal experience has taught me that such questions, asked in such a way, are a function of morbid curiosity, and fixation with the macabre, and nothing else.
...A school is supposed to encourage students to think and ask questions, he said.
This is the part where his son is being taught to think.
It was a good question and the question was inappropriate in that forum. If the kid felt he had to know he should ask for an email address or a few private moments after the assembly.
Then he should explain why he needs to know. Satisfying his morbid curiosity is not enough. He shouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get an answer. He isn't entitled to one.
I have a lot of veteran acquaintenances who I know have combat experience. Even though one of them is my best friend I don't feel I have the right to dredge up unpleasant memories for him just to satisfy my need to hear a "war story."
If I was writing a book, trying to answer one of the greater questions of our time, I might intrude to ask some of these personal experiences. But, you still have to have a relationship with the veteran. A local guy I know, a combat engineer who landed at D-day, burst into tears after I asked a question about his D-day bumpersticker. Later, I saw in the local paper that his granddaughter had interviewed him on his experiences and a copy of the paper had been placed in the local library. I never went down and read it.
I agree that the ass. prin. was probably more upset by Muslims being seen in a bad light than she was by any rudeness shown to a member of our military
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