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COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A high school junior has been suspended for the rest of the school year for refusing to end a cell phone call to his mother who is a solider in Iraq. Kevin Francois, a 17-year-old at Spencer High School in Columbus, was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after a confrontation that began when he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch during the call, 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. Since her deployment overseas, Francois has been living with a guardian in Columbus. Francois got the call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. He said he went outside the school building to get a better reception. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to hang up. He refused. 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're not supposed to use them for conversing back and forth during school because if they were allowed to do that, they could be text messaging each other for test questions,'' said Alfred Parham, assistant principal at Spencer. Francois 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 when he was asked to give up the cell phone. ``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.''

http://www.buffettnews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35754

Cut it out, would you kid?

annoyed... wrote:Cut it out, would you kid?

Who what?

Gee, during this the "National Week of the Teacher" I love how one obviously misguided decision leads to a posting titled "Another reason public schools are no good...." Thanks a lot, I really feel the love. I'd like to know what you do for a living, so everytime I see an article where some one in your industry screws up, I can create a post that demeans you.

That's a pretty broad stroke that you are painting. Just because the administration at this school has their heads so far up their rears that the lump in their throat is their nose, doesn't mean that all public schools are this bad.

FFishstick wrote:I'd like to know what you do for a living, so everytime I see an article where some one in your industry screws up, I can create a post that demeans you.

I'm pretty sure that he's out of the pizza business now, he worked at a hardware store for awhile but I'm not sure if he's still there.

Its not about being PC or not, its about making a statement about the entire public school system based on one event

UAHparrothead wrote:Its not about being PC or not, its about making a statement about the entire public school system based on one event

You should have seen this guys pm to me, brushing off his blantant bash of public schools as "..people are too easily offened in this country," Notice his spelling of offended. Was he a product of private school, or just the kid that did not do his homework?

FFishstick wrote:Was he a product of private school, or just the kid that did not do his homework?

Could be that he fought the dog over eating the homework.

SMLCHNG wrote:

FFishstick wrote:Was he a product of private school, or just the kid that did not do his homework?

Could be that he fought the dog over eating the homework.

Thanks for the laugh SMLCHNG. The smile you provided brought me back to Earth. Thanks. This guy got me fired up, and my teacher patience was at it's end. I will now put him in the ignorant category.

C'mon Gu...er, um, I mean ABF - be honest with us, you just don't like public schools because they aren't white enough for ya.

Last time I checked, my public school routinely gets kids into Ivy League schools so I'd say they are doing a decent job.

Like I said before I work in a public school as the "Dean of Students" and I hardly have any trouble dealing with shootings, violence, or vandalism. A few disrespectful words to the teachers here and there, but nothing terrible.

There are good experiences on public schools and bad ones, as there are with private schools. I have worked in college admissions and, in some years, have been in more than 150 high schools-by far the worst behavior I have seen, and the worst I have ever been treated, was in a private school.

And while I do think this reaction to the cell phone was excessive, I know that one of the schools that I am in on a weekly basis strictly prohibits the use of cell phones in the building, and I have been warned about it on the rare occasion when mine has been on and has rung.

There are usually sound reasons for these rules and policies and it takes a good sense of judgment and compassion to inforce them appropriately. That does not always happen; it is not the fault of the educational system, or the type of school, but rather the fault of an individual who overreacted.

whenever I hear things like, "the student was disruptive and unruly", I gotta wonder where the truth lies. If my mother were calling from Iraq and a teacher told me to hang up on her, then tried confiscating the phone for non-compliance, I'd probably end up with that tag as well.

Rules are rules, yes. however, a bit of common sense and contextual judgement might have made the situation work out better.

Then there is the story about the SoGA super a couple years ago who ruined a kid's life while hiding behind a "zero-tolerance" rule.

It is not the public schools that are f'ed up, it isn't the majority of teachers that make them bad, and it isn't entirely the students... it's a big combination of things. feh.

What does this have to with PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
The only thing I can think of that might have happend differently if he was in private school was they would have smacked him too.

While I do think the teacher should have used some discretion in this case, the student was violating school policy by having his cell phone on the first place. And, according to everything I have read, the student was defiant, and disrespectful, and swore at the teacher. I am sorry, but that is not acceptable behavior, and there should have been some consequences for that. The reaction was way too strong, and the teacher did not handle it well, but the student was wrong as well-any student who swears at a teacher should expect to be punished.

ejr wrote:While I do think the teacher should have used some discretion in this case, the student was violating school policy by having his cell phone on the first place. And, according to everything I have read, the student was defiant, and disrespectful, and swore at the teacher. I am sorry, but that is not acceptable behavior, and there should have been some consequences for that. The reaction was way too strong, and the teacher did not handle it well, but the student was wrong as well-any student who swears at a teacher should expect to be punished.

which could have been something as simple as,

"Hang up."
"no. it's my mom, calling from Iraq"
"Hang up"
"I am not hanging up on my mom."
"Hang up NOW"
"no."

that gets you the first two, defiant and disrespectful of authority... the swearing, well, that could easily have come out of the escalation with that foundation.


and this is being quoted as the student's version:

"But Francois said he had told the teacher he was speaking to his mother. "I told her in a calm voice: `I'm on the phone with my mom in Iraq. I'm not going to give you the phone,'" he said.

He said he did become frustrated when the teacher snatched his phone away, causing the call to be lost. "I got some attitude," he said. "But I didn't curse. I just couldn't understand why I couldn't talk to her. I kept pleading and pleading." "