Friday, May 06, 2005

Ledger-Enquirer | 05/06/2005 | Mother's call gets son in hot water

Oh, dear. A woman serving in Iraq calls her son when she can. She recently called him during his lunch break at school. The school has a policy about against kids using cell phones during school hours because kids can send text messages, etc., that would facilitate cheating on tests. So a teacher sees the kid on the phone and tells him to hang up.

(Kevin) 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.
The kid is suspended because of the incident. The school says it's because he got so upset when he was told to hang up. The kid admits that he probably didn't handle the situation well.

But, tell me again. The kid took a call from his mother and didn't want to lose the connection and it's the kid who is in trouble? The kid's mother is overseas in harm's way and the kid's suspended for clinging to her voice despite the intrusion of a teacher and the teacher's back-up squad? Do I have that right? Tell me I don't have that right.

The school says it's trying to work something out with the boy and his relatives. The boy says he wished he hadn't lost his cool, but he still feels he was right to not hang up on his mother. (Sounds like a reasonable attitude to me...)

And people wonder why homeschooling is booming in this country.

Use the title link to read the Ledger-Enquirer article by Angelique Soenarie.

(Side note: after reading this article, I think perhaps the school needs to work on improving English skills, for administrators on down.)

Hat tip: James Taranto at Best of the Web.

UPDATE: Murdoc Online is pointing out that over-reacting isn't going to help things, either. See www.murdoconline.net/archives/002298.html.

UPDATE: Here's Michelle Malkin's post on it.http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002361.htm.

UPDATE, Saturday, May 7: The suspension has been reduced to time served, and the boy will be back in school Monday. And (not surprisingly), everybody's story is getting better (hey, we're all human): http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/05/07/phone.iraq/

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