Student Suspended For Calling Mom During School

“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/06/national/a092353D08.DTL&feed=rss.news

Student Suspended for Call to Mom in Iraq
Friday, May 6, 2005
(05-06) 09:23 PDT Columbus, Ga. (AP) --

A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile 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.

Mobile 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.

"Kevin got defiant and disorderly," Parham said. "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."

On the Net:
www.mcsdga.net/schools/high/spencer.html
last edited: 5/06/05 3:06:15 PM”

“Methinks the adults handled it VERY badly. Usually that is why the teen gets so upset.

I'd hate to think how hard it is on that kid to only be able to talk once in a rare time with their parent :-(
I know when my friend misses a call from her BF in Iraq she about loses it. She never knows when he will be able to call.”

“Student Suspended For Calling Mom During School

The thread title is misleading.
The student RECEIVED a call from his mom.”

“It's too bad that the teacher handled this situation so badly. It's also too bad the student became disorderly and decided to use profanity when taken to the office.

The teacher should have been more understanding.”

“If they aren't supposed to use phones in school then why was the phone on in the first place?”

“Sounds like the normal 'Press blowing a 'story' out of proportion.'

The kid isn't an angel, bad grades, etc.
The teacher sounds like a jerk also.

I'll wait for more input before shooting the teachers.”

“yep.”

“SS: You are right, and I didn't even catch it.. but I have a good excuse..

http://www.drudge.com/ --> states the title as I printed it... but you are right, sir.

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.


but but.. the kid was not even in class..
last edited: 5/06/05 3:54:43 PM”

“Does anyone believe mom/student were at fault? Maybe she could have coordinated timezones and called back before or after school hours, or on a weekend? That would have allowed dad to be included in the conversation too. I'm sure mom would know the school rules, and the importance of her kid's education.”

“I agree with Stove and think TD's speculations make sense.

It's really hard to know what to make of this story, beyond the fact that Drudge's headline is misleading. I suppose he is the press that blew this out of proportion.

It's hard to tell from the details who was in the wrong, and to what extent.

All in all though, it seems like 10 days suspension is a bit harsh. Too many schools rely on automatic consequences when discpline really out to be adminsitered thoughtfully and individually.”

“Here's a cell phone story:

Kids at a SE MN school are not supposed to have cell phones at all on their senior trip to Washington D.C. Apparently adults also were asked to leave the phones behind. (I say "apparently" cuz this is not a story we ran, or it would have been checked. This is a story I heard. We did not run it..... just sharing FWIW, and explaining the use of "apparently" cuz y'all like to jump down journalists' backs)

OK... to proceed:

The father of one of the students is killed when the CO2 semi-truck he's driving is in an accident and explodes. No one can get ahold of anyone's cell phones. And they can't catch them at the hotel or other places they should be, according to their itinerary.

Someone back home says he can't believe this one kid wouldn't have a cell with, cuz it's basically attached at his hip. So they call that cell. And get an answer.

Word gets to the son, who is flown home, with a teacher as a chaperone, to go to the funeral.

Me, I'm still wondering, if this is all true, did the cell phone kid get in huge trouble?

This just happened in the last three weeks.”

“How did we ever live without cell phones? I remember living pretty good without them. I use mine about 20 minutes a month. I'm almost to the turn off point fight now.

The kid at school should have recieved disiplinary action for breaking school rules. I'm not allowed to carry a cell phone at work in the field due to safety regulations. I work with highly flammable materials. If I get caught with one I'm fired, even if my mom is calling.”

“I just translated this out loud for my students - we are in the library doing a project.”

“"How did we ever live without cell phones?
bateauxdriver"

For one thing, we didn't used to have mom's fighting wars in Iraq...”

“... and we aren't talking about explosive environments.

... and we are talking about a kid who hasn't seen his mother in 5 months.”

“Yeah, if I had been the teacher in question I would have expected an FYou. Had I been the principal, I would have told the teacher to FO.

But that's just me.”