School Reduces Suspension Over Iraq Call (To 3 Days)

[RamboLiberal]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/07/national/a073753D58.DTL

Following hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails, school officials in this Army base city have reduced a suspension imposed on a student who wouldn't give up his cell phone while talking to his mom — a sergeant on duty in Iraq.

The angry calls about the boy's suspension got so bad at one point that secretaries had to take their phones off the hook, assistant principal Alfred Parham said.

<snip>

On Friday, the school district reduced the suspension to three days, which will allow Francois to return to school Monday, after officials met with him, the guardian who cares for him while his mother is out of the country, and a representative of her unit.

"People are fussing at us, calling us names," said assistant principal Wendell Turner.

"We are the school that serves Fort Benning," Turner said. "We're well aware of students with parents overseas."

[MO_Dem]

1. Oh, how generous of them!

How are they gonna deal with it if this guy's Mom gets killed over there?

[Warpy]

3. They'll oh so generously offer the kid half a day off

to go to the funeral, which will probably be at Arlington. Surely the kid can teleport himself back and forth instantaneously.

My hope is that the nasty letters, emails, and phone calls keep coming in, that this kid is NOT docked grades for his 3 days out of school, and that the martinet responsible for this whole thing ends up flipping burgers and taking orders from another martinet.

What an idiot!

[MO_Dem]

4. Reminds me of what we used to say in high school

in 1967...."ours is not to wonder why..ours is to do or die"

[Massacure]

13. Aren't suspensions counted as excused absences?

[antigone382]

16. Nope...yet another reason they're moronic.

I knew a kid who was suspended for ten days because he was sick and had come home from a family trip the night before, and forgot to take the NyQuil out of his bag. His absences were unexcused, so he couldn't make up the work he missed...but it didn't matter anyway, because nine unexcused absences were the maximum you could have and still get credit for the semester. He didn't want to stay in school an extra semester, so he ended up dropping out and getting his GED.

It's an extremely fucked up system.

[Massacure]

17. Weird. What state was that? Suspensions at my school are excused.

[antigone382]

18. Georgia (the same state where Ft. Benning is).

Georgia has to be about the most screwed up police state in the country. I live in Tennessee now, and while it's still a red state, it's a much nicer place with more open-minded people.

[Sydnie]

Surely they will tell him to

pack his bags and take them with him when he leaves for the funeral. Can't having him staying behind while his single mother is no longer a member of the military. Have to free up that spot for the next unlucky child of a soldier in Iraq to fill.

And they say they're the compassionate ones?

[rocktivity]

2. Can I get a Dean Scream?

YEEEEEAAAAAGGGGGHHH!

It isn't as though the kid got the call right in the middle of a class--he WAS on his lunch break.

:bounce:
rocknation

[kcass1954]

5. More "family values"...

First they split up the family over an illegal and immoral war. Then make it way too difficult for this mother to keep in touch with her kid.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Note the kid is African-American - wonder if they would've

suspended a white kid?

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. I'm surprised they didn't handcuff the guy.

It wouldn't be the first time.

[LifeDuringWartime]

15. he was almost arrested n/t

n/t

[LynneSin]

10. If the kid was white, the mother probably wouldn't be stuck in Iraq

:grr:

[enigmatic]

8. They are still tap-dancing, I see..

And doing everything they can to make sure this kid gets smeared. How noble.

[GetTheRightVote]

9. It is sad when a woman is a soldier & needs to speak w/ her son

but the school decides it just isn't right while in school, please explain to me why these obviously fine educators have jobs any more ??

[BlueIris]

11. Yeah, I'm not impressed. Still sending my letters.

Policies exist for a reason, this is true. But there should have been an exception made in this case. Their inflexibility here is ABSURD.

[Ilsa]

14. They don't know how to exercise discretion any more,

even with administrators' salaries. "Zero tolerance" policies have given the administrators permission not to think anymore.

[RamboLiberal]

12. Kicking this so everyone has story for Monday

:kick: