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.
Yeah, we all have every right to askk any a question any place we please,,,but civil people know what not to ask. And being civil is as important a virtue to learn as "what your rights are"
Would you agree on that. If this were my kid, I would give him a lecture he would never forget.
A ninth grader is definately old enought to know that you don't ask a question like that.
It's extremely rude and disrespectful. If it were a woman that he asked that question, he would have been expelled from the school.
I find it hard to believe he didn't ask such a question to be intentionally disruptive and disrespectful.
The fact that the kids father is defending him instead of teaching his kid to be respectful says there are serious problems in that family.
You are wrong.
To ask "do islamofascists rape men and women who are captive" is a fine question.
To ask of a man, in public, "were you raped" is atrocious.
And most people know the difference.
Obviously the kid had been coached by his parents to embarrass a military man.
I don't know. I'm conflicted on the whole issue. Did the MS administrators believe CWO Durant was just going to be asked about helicopter flying? Maybe someone needs to ask them what they expected? The kids know he's been through hell and they have questions about it.
Note the father's statement that "he asked a fair hard balled question".
I imagine knowing the men in my life that asking one of them in public was he raped might be an occasion that would cause incredible discomfort or downright violence whether he was or not.
And the father seemed to relish the asking that aquestion of a military man. Hmmm,,agenda.
It was a classless, idiotic question. The little buffoon should be expelled, and his classless idiotic dad should be fined.
We might just disagree.
But I cannot imagine any circumstance where his question would be appropriate unless in a small group of people preparing others for military actions. And even then I think it would be alluded to in a generic non specific sense.
ping.
I wouldn't have answered the question, either.
What matter here, IMHO, is why the student is being punished. Were the students instructed, pre-assembly, to keep their line of questions within civil protocol? If this wasn't made clear to the students, then, IME, there's no grounds to punish the student.
The student is hardly being punished. He was asked to apologize and he has been banned from future assemblies. Wow. Some punishment.
"What was the question? "
What? The question was in the second sentence.
Yes, I see the difference. I guess I was just trying to assume the best about the kid, but you make a good point.
This kid has a future as a journalist...maybe successor to David Gregory.
Yes he did write a book: "In the Company of Heroes: A True Story." Here's the link to it on Amazon:
Oh come on. A 14 year old is old enough to know that asking whether someone was raped is inappropriate. I remember being that age, and the only time questions as rude as that were ever asked was by people purposely trying to be offensive or make a scene.
It was up to the school officials to moderate the questions. Any fool knows that teens, especially boys, think about sex 90 percent of the time. A teacher should have stepped in and redirected the question to ask "Were you tortured?" or "Were you mistreated?" Frankly I think the pilot's answer was a good one and the entire thing should have been dropped. Perhaps the boy should have been counseled in proper deportment. He and the father may have an open relationship that allows them to talk about it, but I would bet that if the father had been raped he wouldn't want his son to ask him about it in front of 500 people.
The father's screwed up regardless. He defends the boy by saying all he was asking was a "fair, hardball question". WTF? Who does he think this POW is, some guy running for office?
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