"that teacher" or "teachers like that"
Posted on 04/12/2008 10:49:54 AM PDT by infantrywhooah
A Texas service member and his son recently found themselves separated not only by an eight-hour time difference, several bodies of water and hundreds of miles, but by a teacher who tried to come between the two as the military dad called his son in his time of need during class.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
zero tolerance, baby. woohoo!
Sounds like teacher just volunteered to switch places with dad.
You ever try and talk to some of these teachers? Like talking to a wall. When my kids were little and in grade school and had a teachers conference..........they tried to get us to sit in those little chairs that the kids use. I told them to get some regular chairs. Teachers don’t live in a real world. They live in a kids world.
They don’t live in any world, they seem to be on another planet.
As a high school teacher and a mother of a son that has been to Iraq and will go back this year, I would have had no problem with this. Some common sense should prevail over school rules. This teacher is an idiot.
The problem is our schools are being run by morons. Intelligent people understand that there are occasionally times when rules should be suspended to accommodate extraordinary circumstances.
I would put a soldier parent using a rare opportunity to call a child from a war zone in that category.
It's not just the Teachers. The Administration of these schhols is just as much a part of the 'Problem' as any teacher. They spend their careers avoiding difficult decisions and pandering to the loudest voices in the meetings they attend. This is not a surprise - It's about Politics/Survival and definitely not about Education or Common Sense.
If Texas can still proudly claim it is a red state, then I would expect that a lot of red state rage would make these clowns reconsider.
On the other hand, if the kid's phone was set to vibrate and he discreetly took the call in the hallway, then he should have been allowed to take the call.
The fact that his dad is in the military doesn't give him a free pass to ignore good order and discipline in his own school.
Ever notice how common sense ain’t so common?
If this is Cove High School in Copperas Cove near Ft. Hood I have a feeling the school board will be hearing from a lot of irate parents and citizens.
beautiful
"that teacher" or "teachers like that"
I disagree with every comment made so far on this thread. The kid should have turned his phone off or left it at home. The dad should have called after school. I don’t think my fellow FReepers are thinking this through carefully and dispassionately. The school aparently has a rule that there are no phone calls allowed during class. This seems like an obvious, appropriate rule to me. Now FReepers want to start making exceptions. Try to imagine writing these exceptions into the rule, applying them even-handedly, and dealing with all of the scamming and rule-bending that schoolkids are bound to do. I think folks are getting played on this story.
>>>Ever notice how common sense ain’t so common?
Common sense is an oxymoron.
I don't see a lot of common sense on this thread.
Thank you!
You are operating under the assumption that a soldier in Iraq can make calls whenever he wants to, rather than having to make his calls when communications access is available to him.
If that was my kid, I did not cut him a lot of slack, and I was in Viet Nam, as I was before he was born, and I got a chance to call him, and some person disciplined him for talking to me, I think someone would have a hurt put on them when I got home.
If this is Cove High School in Copperas Cove near Ft. Hood I have a feeling the school board will be hearing from a lot of irate parents and citizens.
This be the School. Something approaching 1/2 the students will have a military connection. After all it sits on the boundary of Ft. Hood. One article I saw claimed the Hills thought that had agreement with the school to allow they sons to answer a call when coming from their dad. The school apparently doesn’t have that same understanding. I could well be a mix up on how the calls were to be routed, example, school office first and then the student called in.
I think downrange, you call when you get a chance.
On balance, though, you raise a very good point related to my earlier one. We don't know how disruptive the kid was in taking the call.
Sheesh, I hope it was a mix up and not as mean spirited as it sounds. The Ft. Hood community is tight knit. That teacher might want to go underground for a while, lol.
My wife works in the accounting/grants/scholarships office of a college. Now my wife is a true brainiac! She cannot believe the idiocy of the Deans, Administrators, and Professors she has to deal with daily!
“Well, you can to your college, you can go to your school
But if you ain’t got Jesus, you’se an educated fool”
And that’s all!
I assume nothing. It is a matter of priorities. Which is more important? Making the call of respecting the classroom?
Come on, IMO you really need to expand your acceptance level. Turn the phone off? maybe. Figure out the time differential and where his child is? Unreasonable expectation.
So what if this one time a call is taken? Really, come on!
Smart move by the teachers. It helps to create an atmosphere where the parents will feel inferior to the teacher.
The dad could have looked at his watch, realized that his son was at school, and decided to call some other time.
So during class, each time a student receives a call, you would stop teaching to verify who the call was from?
Very good points. I mean, I take calls from my wife (who has more than a few medical issues) at work, but my phone stays on vibrate and I’m very quiet about answering.
.....This teacher is an idiot......
The teacher ia an antiwar, antiAmerican, liberal idiot.
..
>>>The dad could have looked at his watch, realized that his son was at school, and decided to call some other time.
Naive at best. What if he had 10 minutes to make and complete the call? “Oh well, maybe next time...” Forget that crap. Zero tolerance makes zero sense.
I think our servicemen can subtract one number from another. Unless, of course, they were talking on the phone the whole time during math class.
Well, I don’t think the kid should have answered the call while actually in class - cell phones weren’t allowed in our classrooms at all, but once I got into college every professor either said ‘You aren’t allowed to use your phones during class, but if you’re expecting an important call, let me know ahead of time’ (like I did when I was waiting to hear back from a friend at VA Tech last spring, I left my phone on vibrate and went outside to answer it) or else ‘If you’re gonna do something disruptive during class time, please do it outside the classroom and I couldn’t care less, cause it’s your loss if you miss class time, not mine’.
Yes the kid should have left his phone at home - but he didn’t.
Yes, dad should not have called while the kid was at school - but he didn’t.
The real life situation was that the kid had his phone at school and dad, who is in Iraq, called him while he was at school.
The teacher had an opportunity to turn this into a history/civics lesson and taken punitive action later if needed, but she didn’t.
The teacher failed as far as I’m concerned.
From someone that has been in Iraq three times, you call when you can. Phones are not always easy to come by and then there is that “I can’t call home while I am on patrol” thing
This teacher and the administration were way out of line on this one. My wife, who is a high school teacher by the way, always kept her phone on during class in case I should be able to call. No one ever had a problem with it. In fact on more than one occasion she allowed some of her kids to talk to me, which was great for both of us. I see nothing wrong with that. When you can only call home once a week, people in this country just have to make accomodations.
Who said anything about one time? Rule are designed to be applied repeatedly. That's why they are called "rules" rather that "judgements".
That's exactly what I said. What do you propose be the rule?
Here’s the story from a local tv station:
http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8144020&nav=menu509_3
Call From Iraq: Father Speaks Out Against Son’s Suspension
Posted: April 9, 2008 05:34 PM CDT
by Sara Talbert
COPPERAS COVE- It was a story you only saw on News Channel 25. A student, suspended for answering a cell phone call from his father in Iraq, while at school.
Copperas Cove I.S.D. did not comment when News Channel 25’s story originally ran on April 4.
The mother of the suspended student says the school still hasn’t called her back. But Wednesday, News Channel 25 was able get in touch with the school and speak with the student’s father who is stationed in Iraq.
“I want them to respond to me. I want them to change it,” said Patricia Hill, the student’s mother.
“They haven’t called my wife back. I don’t know why they haven’t emailed or whatever. They probably don’t know how to respond,” said Master Sergeant Morris Hill.
Copperas Cove High School Principal Dr. Carol Saxenian told News Channel 25 she couldn’t comment on any particular student but did say they have procedures in place. Parents are to call the front desk and the school will retrieve the student from class. But the Hills say by that time, the phone call from Iraq will be disconnected, so they opted for the cell phone.
“Some people say it’s disruptive. Well that’s fine. All he has to do is walk by the teacher’s desk and say it’s my dad in Iraq and walk out the door,” said Patricia.
“The first time I call him, he gets suspended? It just seems absolutely ridiculous,” said Morris.
Dr. Saxenian says it’s school policy; There are to be no cell phones allowed during instructional time. She also says in no way would the school keep a student from talking to a parent during an emergency situation.
Patricia Hill says she’s written letters to Congressmen, Senators and even the Vice President.
She says she’s still waiting on a return phone call from the school.
News Channel 25 spoke with the superintendents office Wednesday who said they did not have any comment.
This sounds like a caricature of a conservative argument dreamed up by a liberal.
How about “If your parent, who is punting his life on the line in a foreign country calls, you get to talk to them”
>>>That’s exactly what I said. What do you propose be the rule?
The rule ought not be made by you, that’s for sure.
The solution lies in any one of a number of other replies up the thread.
If I were the teacher, it would have been 100% disruptive. The poor kid would have probably had to leave the room because of all the cheering, led by me.
This makes no sense. This thread is full of people arguing that the call should have been allowed without punishment. I am arguing otherwise. You seem to be arguing both and neither.
Well, I would have taken the call from my dad and to hell with what the teachers said. It was mean and nasty is all.
I’m surprised this happened in Texas of all places.
You are right! The teacher failed. This kid was taking a call from his dad. So what? He needed his dad. The teacher wasn’t bright enough to turn this into something where everyone could have benefited. It was better to assert authority instead of displaying compassion.
You are right! The teacher failed. This kid was taking a call from his dad. So what? He needed his dad. The teacher wasn’t bright enough to turn this into something where everyone could have benefited. It was better to assert authority instead of displaying compassion.
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