Posted on 03/25/2005 10:05:00 AM PST by KidGlock
Principal apologizes for smoking at school
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.
oh gawd. I use to smell cigarette smoke coming out of the teachers' lounge all the time. This is ridiculous an he had no reson to apologize.
what makes me boil is they suspended the kid and are still wanting him to remove the photo. What about free speech and truth?
So, if it's a violation of R.I. State law, what is the penalty?
Apparently, the punishment is to say you're sorry over the intercom. That's some teeth they have in their laws up there.
And why hasn't she been arrested and taken to jail? She just admitted she did it. Isn't there a "moral turpitude" policy there?
The double standards of the left....
Why should students obey the rules if she won't?
Apparently the superintendent overruled the suspension. They'd have a heck of a time with the ACLU if they tried to force him to remove a pic from his own webspace.
Well, as long as he said he was sorry. That's really all that matters.
Me too. The teachers lounge was full of smoke. But now that media members, the teachers union, etc...have decided they wanted to quit smoking, the rest of us must quit also. And if you don't, you are the worst type of person, even lower than child molesters.
I think this kid should respect his elders. There was a time when this kid would never have even thought about taking a picture of a principal.
America is becoming so PC bound, it reminds me of forced Chinese Communist "self-criticism" sessions under Mao.
http://www.projo.com/digitalbulletin/content/projo-20050323-centralstudent.168a71eb6.html
Um, why not? The principal is telling them one thing and doing another. If he'd accused her of her offense without a picture, he would have been penalized as well as laughed out of the office. Notice how the principal exacted her petty revenge on the kid.
I got a ticket for smoking on school property last summer. I took my friends kids to the school parking lot so they could play with their RC cars.
Because children are not adults and need to respect their elders. Her smoking is NONE of his business.
This kid is a hero for teaching all of us this valuable lesson.
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