Here’s a story that pits common sense against unfeeling educational bureaucratic thinking: a high school student has been suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother who is serving in Iraq.
Even when you read the bare-bones facts of this story from the AP it makes your blood boil:
COLUMBUS, Ga. May 6, 2005 — 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.
So let’s find out more:
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.”
See? Rules are rules. Forget about the fact his mother is Iraq — and that the fact that any first grader who has learned how to read will know that Americans are getting killed over there. Rules are rules — and if the kid reacts to the rules it is “inappropriate behavior”(favorite educators language) and he must pay.
Which is exactly what happened:
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.”
Now, isn’t that generous? But what about that teacher? Perhaps officials should have a quiet talk with the teacher who would not give him a few minutes to talk with his Mom — his Mom who could wind up one day in the headlines as another war casualty. That teacher, it seems, could have cared less about the distance separating mother and son or the danger facing the mother.
See: rules are rules. And what the teacher did in not taking into consideration the fact that the kid’s mother is in constant danger is not in the rules.
FOOTNOTE: Not all educators are so inflexible. Read our earlier post here about a controversy in which an educator quickly corrected an earlier decision that had perhaps not been the best.
Except in this one it didn’t involve a kid talking to a Mother who could die while serving for her country (which includes teachers who won’t let her son talk to her because it violates the rules).
UPDATE: In the comments section our reader Jehan Parker adds this (which deserves to be put out front as an update):
I saw that article on the A-P Wire this morning and immediately emailed the school district supt, Dr. John Phillips, with a cc to the Spencer High School principal and vice-principal, Mr. Parham. I immediately recieved this automatic press release which I post as a FYI. In my opinion it is face saving boilerplate. As a mother of now adult children, I have faced and dealt with distraught seventeen year olds. I am not impressed:
MEDIA RELEASE FROM DR. JOHN A. PHILLIPS, JR.,
SUPERINTENDENT
MUSCOGEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Muscogee County School District has over 3700 military students enrolled. We have a long and strong relationship with Ft. Benning. Spencer High School has the greatest number of military students of any of our schools. All of our counselors have received training in supporting students whose parents have been deployed, and military personnel serve as Partners in Education in over half of our schools.
When the Spencer teacher approached the young man about using a cell phone on campus, contrary to Board of Education policy which is designed to preserve instructional time and decorum in our schools, the young man did not tell the teacher he was speaking to his mother in Iraq. He indicated he would not comply with a request to turn over his cell phone and used profanity. The teacher escorted the young man to the office, where assistant principals tried to get him to calm himself and to cease the use of profanity. It was only at this point that administrators learned he was talking to his mother in Iraq.
The Guidance Department at Spencer High School has arranged for a number of students to receive calls from parents who are deployed. They would have been happy to do this for this young man. The issue here was not so much the use of the cell phone as it was the choices the young man made in handling the situation. We are empathetic to all students whose parents serve in the armed forces; we do have behavior standards which we uphold.
The school has been in touch with personnel from Ft. Benning. We are endeavoring to have the young man readmitted after a three day suspension, which was the first option for him. It was only after greater defiance and profanity that the suspension was extended. We will ask that the student and his guardian sign a behavior contract indicating that he will comply with the same standards of behavior which apply to all of our students. We will continue to be sensitive to the needs of students whose parents serve our country.
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER INQUIRY:
Spencer High School
Muscogee County School District
SOME OTHER VOICES SPEAKING ON THIS ISSUE INCLUDE:
Citizen Smash
The Yellow Line
Pudentilla
Outside The Beltway
Michelle Malkin
John C. A. Bambenek
Winfield Myers
Joanne Jacobs
Don Singleton
Dean Esmay
Marine Corps Moms MUST READ
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.