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What no one seems to be asking is what this was for. I mean, a 12 year old kid is hardly part of show and tell any more. It could not have been anything but distraction to the class.

I would reckon the teacher is a harpy. The principal is probably a jackass who went off on the kid because the teacher complained. The kid was probably a smartass about it and that's how this got worse quick. He's got attitude written all over him, and with a mom like this, go figure.

Mom should have thought about the ramifications of her kid bringing the Swimsuit Edition to class. I personally wouldn't have issues with the kid bringing a Playboy to school, as long as he didn't wave it around in the classroom and distract students from learning, though if he got busted distracting others or waving a Playboy around, it would be all on him for being dumb. And at the age of 12, a Swimsuit Edition is going to provide for a prominent distraction for most boys--so it's all on him, and mom should have admitted that from the start.

The principal was right to punish the kid at least somewhat for providing the distraction in class (if he refused to put it away per teacher's instructions), and the mom's attitude should have been thus: my kid shouldn't have been doing what he did, so he takes his licks. She might have reasonably complained to the principal about the heavy punishment and nicely asked for the kid to be punished at home instead of this in-school crap AFTER THE KID WAS MADE TO APOLOGIZE to the teacher and principal for being disrespectful, which I'd reckon he was being from the anger of the principal and subsequent further punishment. Instead, mommy seems to have said her kid deserves sheltering and no punishment whatsoever even though she seems to acknowledge he did wrong. "It's not like it was a Hustler" isn't the same thing at all as "he didn't do anything."

Incidentally, they had the SI edition in my school library when I was in high school. We weren't stupid enough to bring it to school. Dumb kid.