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Student suspended over call from mom in Iraq

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Diesel

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COLUMBUS, Georgia (AP) -- A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a cell 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.

Cell 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.

Full story at http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/05/06/call.suspension.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
 
I've been in the military and i have lived in Columbus, Georgia. I know that the people there are very good about making exceptions for things like this. It is very important for the families to be in contact with loved ones in a combat zone. I also know what it takes to get the time and place to make a call from a combat zone.So do the administrators at the school. There is a lot more to this story than what we see here.
The boy was probably very verbal, loud, and used profanity, very early in the confrontation. He is probably very scared for his mother and is quick to lash out because of this. He is probably hurt inside because he feels that there is nothing he can do, (he would be right) and doesn't know how to respond to the situation.
This is a very tough thing to deal with at any age. there are many things that could have been done to avoid this.
1. The school could allow students to take these very special calls in another room (such as the nurses office). This would allow some privacy and should be considered an excused tardiness from any class time that may be missed.

2. The student could ask the principal or secratary, to excuse them from class to take such a call.

3. The military could set up a support team at the school for the kids specifficaly for the purpose of dealing with kids having parents/siblings in combat situations. These services are available on post but that means going after school, instead of school, or on weekends. It's hard enough for these kids to deal with. They should not have to interupt their lives more than is needed. We need to make it easier for them to understand what is going on in there lives. It doesn't make it less hard to deal with. But it does let them know that they are not alone in the struggle to deal with life in a military family.

GOOD LUCK WITH ALL YOU DO KEVIN!! AND I PRAY THAT YOUR MOTHER STAYS SAFE!!
 
I don't think there's really a "right" in this particular situation.
The teacher should probably have approached the situation with a bit more flexibility, instead of as an imposing authority figure. The student explaining that it was his mother on the phone should have been enough to put the situation to rest, but my understanding from the story was that the teacher was insistant on him ending the phone call. Faced with that, I'd likely have reacted the same way as he did, whether at the time I was his age, or currently.
Then again, I have an aversion to authority when it's simply because society says that the figure deserves respect, rather than the figure having earned the respect.

OTOH, the student did not need to resort to profanity, which seems to be the real issue here. No one seems to be arguing after the fact that he should have ended the call. Rather, the objection from the administration seems to be his use of profanity and defiance. The article states "Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction to the teacher's request."

If the student's first response was to resort to profanity, he was wrong. If the teacher's first response was to demand that the student end the call without actually knowing the nature of the call, the teacher was wrong.
 
Indeed, MJ. I've often quite played this situation over in my own mind (and simply from a call from my mother only 300 miles away) and it usually always ends with the professor asking me to sit down as I get up to answer my ringing phone.

I always answer, "It's my mom, I've got to take it."

"No!" retorts my angry professor. And a scuffle ensues. Then the bell rings and class is over.
 
Diesel said:
Then again, I have an aversion to authority when it's simply because society says that the figure deserves respect, rather than the figure having earned the respect.
Click to expand...

Well said Diesel.

I don't know the whole situation for the kid, but even if he yelled and screamed profanity, a 10 day vac . . . suspension seems a bit harsh for this situation.
 
Personally, I would side with the school on this one. You can't just simply ignore rules. So, everytime a teacher sees a kid on the cell phone, does the teacher need to ask, "Who is that?" so the kid can say, "It's my mom, I can't hang up!" Think about it for a second. You have to look at the whole picture. Also, what about the mother? Didn't she hear he son use profanity towards a teacher? Shouldn't she have said something to him? If that was my son, I would have been very angry with him. I would have thought the mother, being in the military, would understand the necessity for rules and regulations, and I would have thought she would have had better judgement.

The ONLY justification I could see for the breaking of rule like this would be if, God forbid, his mother was ill, or it was a life and death situation. Other than that, I think rules have to be followed.
 
but ten days? they're also claiming that the suspension was for using profanity when they interrupted his call, which he denies.

incidentally, his suspension was shortened to two days and he's back at school.
 
goingnova said:
The ONLY justification I could see for the breaking of rule like this would be if, God forbid, his mother was ill, or it was a life and death situation. Other than that, I think rules have to be followed.
Click to expand...

Do you know how hard it is for active military personnel stationed in Iraq to make a phone call home? It requires Herculean measures, and what this woman had to go through surely qualifies as an exception to your typical teenage phone call.
Considering what this woman is doing for our country, surely a 10 minute phone call to talk to her son should, under any reasonable expectation, be considered an extrodinary circumstance that merits special consideration in the eyes of any administration, whether it be work, school, or other.
 
i would argue that being halfway around the world in a war zone just might qualify as a life and death situation, too. for all he knows, every chance he gets to talk to her might be his last - not terribly likely, but possible.
 
Diesel said:
Do you know how hard it is for active military personnel stationed in Iraq to make a phone call home? It requires Herculean measures, and what this woman had to go through surely qualifies as an exception to your typical teenage phone call.
Considering what this woman is doing for our country, surely a 10 minute phone call to talk to her son should, under any reasonable expectation, be considered an extrodinary circumstance that merits special consideration in the eyes of any administration, whether it be work, school, or other.
Click to expand...

Diesel, as I said though, how can you expect the teacher to verify this? Should the teacher take time away from the rest of the class every time a student gets a phone call that they "have to take"? What is to stop every kid in the class for making an excuse every time they get a call they want to take? Also, there is NO EXCUSE excuse for a student to curse at a teacher, no excuse whatsoever. I am sure part of the punishment is for doing that.

Perhaps the student, or the student's guardian should have sent a note to the principle, informing the principle that the student's mother is in Iraq, and the student might be getting a phone call. The principle could have then given the student a note, which the student could have given to the teacher to explain the circumstances. I really feel for the teacher because, well, I am a Police Officer, and I get this kind of crap all the time. Everyone things their excuse justifies their actions. The rules are there for a reason, and while you are certainly able to decide when a circumstance merits breaking of a rule, you still have to be cognisant of the fact that you are subject to penalty. And, as I said many times, the student was DEAD WRONG for cursing the teacher out in front of the class. I think he got what he deserved.
 
nova> You seem to have the facts of this case very confused.
First, this incident did not take place in front of the class, but over the lunch break.
Second, the student has repeatedly denied that any obscenities were said. That is no more than a "he said, she said" issue, and the reduction of the suspension might very well have to do with the fact that the teacher was unable to prove that it happened.

Since those seem to be your main two points of contention, I thought they needed to be clarified.

As for the student having a note, again, do you know how difficult it is for deployed servicemen and women to make phone calls back home? Chances are excellent that she found an opportunity and siezed it, and that her calling during school hours was the ONLY time she would have an opportunity to call. It's not like there's any reason to believe this would be a regular occurrance, hence it would take omniscient foresight to know to have a note, either on the part of the student or the mother.

As for the teacher, she could have verified by ASKING. There's nothing that says that a teacher's rule needs to be followed without question. This is school... not the military... not prison... high school. IMHO, the teacher should have told the student that calls are not permitted, not demanded unconditionally that the call be terminated. Upon being notified of the nature of the call, the teacher should have dropped it as a special exception.
 
Diesel said:
nova> You seem to have the facts of this case very confused.
First, this incident did not take place in front of the class, but over the lunch break.
Second, the student has repeatedly denied that any obscenities were said. That is no more than a "he said, she said" issue, and the reduction of the suspension might very well have to do with the fact that the teacher was unable to prove that it happened.
Click to expand...

In light of this, I would say, for me to comment I guess I would have had to witness what transpired, because IF there was no profanity, they I would agree with you.
 
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