Posted on 05/06/2005 10:15:07 AM PDT by Responsibility1st
COLUMBUS, Ga. -- 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Authoritarian Government Gods, may I please speak to mother who is in Iraq fighting for your fat, lazy, worthless government employee, tax sucking asses?
I'm with you!
he said that this was making his grades fall. there is another article about this floating around here somewhere...
Lunch time in public school is NOT like it was when I was in school. It is not enjoyable -- nor is it meant to be -- it is a strained, unnatural regiment.
The lunch period is a very RIGID operation. No one is allowed to speak unless it is absolutely necessary. And students MUST raise their hand - to be excused when they are finished.
It is like a prison, I tell you. I am basing this on my experience with an elementary school in Houston.
The kid deserves a suspension. His mom may be in Iraq, I wonder where his dad is.....
Out on a limb here with sketchy information.
Looks like the school withheld the info about the teacher putting hands on the student without cause, and the teachers provocative actions.
Mother's call gets son in hot water
BY ANGELIQUE SOENARIE
Kevin Francois gave up his lunch break to talk to his mother, but it ended up costing him the rest of the school year.
Francois, a junior at Spencer High School in Columbus, was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch while talking to his mother who is deployed in Iraq, he said.
His mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, left in January for a one-year tour and serves with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
"This is our first time separated like this," said Francois, 17, on Thursday.
Bates came to Fort Benning with her son from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. She enrolled him at Spencer in August. Since her deployment overseas, Francois, whose father was killed when he was 5 years old, lives with a guardian who has five children in Columbus.
The incident happened when Francois received a call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. Francois said he went outside the school building to get a better reception when his mother called. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to get off the phone. But he didn't.
According to the Muscogee County School District Board of Education's policy, students are allowed to have cell phones in school, but cannot use them during school hours.
"They are really allowed to have those cell phones so that after band or after chorus or after the debate and practices are over they have to coordinate with the parents," said Alfred Parham, assistant principal at Spencer. "They're not supposed to use them for conversating back and forth during school because if they were allowed to do that, they could be text messaging each other for test questions."
Francois said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."
Francois said the teacher tried to take the phone, causing it to hang up.
The student said he then went with the teacher to the school's office where he surrendered his phone. His mother called again at 12:37 p.m. and left a message scolding her son about hanging up and telling him to answer the phone when she calls.
Control issue
Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction when he was asked to give up the cell phone and told about the school's cell phone policy.
"Kevin got defiant and disorderly with Mr. Turner and another assistant principal," Parham said Thursday. "He got defiant with me. He refused to leave Mr. Turner's office. 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."
Wendall Turner is another assistant principal at Spencer.
Parham said the student used profanity when he was taken into the office. He said he tried to work out something with the student. But Francois said he was too frustrated he couldn't answer the phone when his mother called him the second time.
"I even asked Kevin, 'You know we can try to work something out to where if your mother wants to call you she can call you at the school,'" Parham said. "So we've tried to work with Kevin and we're going to continue to try to work with Kevin and his mother and his relatives. In the course of good order and discipline, we have to abide by our policy."
Francois admitted he was partially at fault for his behavior but said he should have been allowed to talk to his mother.
"I was mad at the time, but I feel now maybe I should've went about it differently," he said. "Maybe I should've just waited outside to pick up the phone. But I don't I feel I should've changed any of my actions. I feel I was right by not hanging up the phone."
For Francois, he said he gets to hear from his mother once a month, and phone calls vary depending on when she can use the phone in Iraq. Francois said his mother calls as late as 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and tries to catch him during hours he's awake. He said the phone call Wednesday was the first time she called him while he was at school.
Francois, who said he's been struggling with his grades in school, wants to go back to school and finish the rest of his year. He fears he may have pay for summer school because of his punishment.
"My grades had been low, but I was bringing them up. My grades were coming back up. On one of my report cards I had like a 'F' in one of my classes, but I brought it back up to a low 'C.' This just brought me all the way down."
Of what?.......
I hope you also taught your kids to think for themselves (that was not meant to be snarky or a judgment on your parenting style...just to head that little war off before it starts!:)
I emailed story to Sean Hannity and O'Reilly.
Welcome to the 203RD Forward Support Battalion's (FSB) home page.
Dad's dead, mom is in a war zone. It's difficult to get to call home from a war zone - I knew a girl who, whenever her boyfriend called home from Iraq, dropped whatever they were doing to answer the call because of that. Chances for phone calls are few and far between, and really expensive.
It's all about discretion. Under those circumstances, if I were the teacher, I'd let him bring the cell phone into class, as long as it didn't disrupt (put it on vibrate, etc.) He was out on his lunch break, talking with a mother overseas fighting for our country in an unpopular war, causing no one any trouble. The teacher walks up and tries to take his phone from him? Hell no. That teacher is lucky she didn't get a punch in the face - because she deserves it.
Precisely. I'd argue the teacher assaulted and battered him.
The lunch period, heck, the whole school day in my town is like a free for all. Kids all over the place, smoking, conversating (sic) and all. Certainly not like boot camp, nor my prep school lunch periods.
last para is my oint - sounds like the kid is blaming this for failure. he can and should do better.
and i'm sure the school blames mom - it fits in their general trend to drive wedges between kids and parents.
Too many parents are far too willing to hand over the raising
of their children to school authorities. Here in Oklahoma
the law states that if a child is enrolled in the public school system,
the school has greater authority than the parents
over the well being of the student.
If my two sons were enrolled in the school system and they got into a fight
with each other in their bedroom in my home on a Sunday afternoon,
the school had the authority to suspend or expell them
We need to take back our schools from Zero tolerance liberals
or at least take back our kids from these schools.
Sometimes teachers are really bad.
In 2nd grade, my son was going to a private Christian school. One day, I picked him up, and he had had a pee accident. He told me they can only go to the bathroom at recess and lunch, and he needed to go to the bathroom after lunch.
I told him to try to go to the bathroom at recess or lunch even if he didn't need to, and I told him to also ask his teacher if he ever needed to go to the bathroom.
Well, he had another accident at school. However, he asked th teacher if he could go, and she said no.
I told the teacher she should always let a 7 year old go to the bathroom. If there was a problem with the kid going to the bathroom too much, it should be brought to the attention of the parents. The child could have a medical problem like a urinary tract infection.
She still didn't let kids go to the bathroom.
I told my son that if he had to go, then to just go to the bathroom and I'd deal with the school afterwards.
I sent him a note.
I should have pulled my son from the school right then and there, but we finished the year. She was a horrible teacher. We switched to public school the next year, and we've had much better teachers there. (who'd of thunk that)
Authoritarian Government Gods, may I please speak to mother who is in Iraq fighting for your fat, lazy, worthless government employee, tax sucking asses?
****
Regardless of what you and I think of the public school system...the young man should still have asked permission. He was 17 years old..he should have known better.
The kid was on LUNCH HOUR, he didn't receive the call during class.
When was the last time you tried to find a teacher in the school cafeteria during lunch to ask permission to leave the building... while your mom in Iraq is on the phone?
That would be a ridiculous requirement.
***
There was no one supervising them?
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