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May 08, 2005
Zero Tolerance For Troublemakers
The Georgia student's suspension for talking to his Iraq-deployed mom during school hours has been reduced due to the overwhelming public response.
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.
Which is good because the whole thing was so stupid. And could've been avoided by a judicious application of common sense by the teacher involved by allowing the student to finish the phone call before confiscating his cell phone.
The teacher claims that the student never said the call was from his mother, but I don't buy that....especially since I've read elsewhere that his mother attempted to call back after she was disconnected. Hello, caller ID?
Now I have the utmost respect for good teachers, who have a difficult job. And cell phones certainly have no place in a classroom. But a another quote from the asst. principal makes me think there was more to this.
Mr. Parham said, however, that Kevin's behavior at school has been "a chronic problem."
Here's a dirty little secret about schools & students. A student who's been labeled a 'behavior problem' gets punished for the slightest rule infraction; a student who makes good grades and/or has athletic talent does not. My ADHD son was, for a time, the former. I was the latter. I once got caught skipping school, which in my day was an automatic 3 licks with a paddle. Instead, I was told the next time I wanted to cut class, to let the superintendant know where I was going. Seriously.
My son was in trouble constantly, even for things he didn't do. The school's attitude was that since he was usually the ringleader, the times he claimed he didn't do anything he was just lying. Even after we got him on medication and got his behavior under control. Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker. (Fortunately, we eventually moved to a different school district.)
Life in general is like that too, so this isn't necessarily a bad lesson for a kid to learn......as long as he or she understands the underlying dynamics. But I don't think that's what this kid has learned so far.
And Kevin added: "I'm not a golden child and I've been wrong, but I was right this time."
Yes, he was. But which do you think he will learn from this? That the better his behavior is, the more he's allowed to bend the rules when necessary? Or that authority figures are arbitrary & unfair, and therefore don't deserve respect?
Exactly.
Posted by Rita at May 8, 2005 06:27 AM
Comments
Reminds me of:
What do most teachers use for birth control?
Their personalities.
Posted by: Kenneth at May 8, 2005 09:48 AM
Heh. I guess I was just lucky, but most of my teachers were really nice people and good at their jobs. Though I never really appreciated them until much later when I went to college and drew some extraordinarily bad ones.
Posted by: rita at May 9, 2005 07:20 AM
I heard that he was at lunch when the call came in.
Kenneth, that's a lawyer joke!
Posted by: Sue at May 9, 2005 04:31 PM
You're right, so okay, how did all of the teachers get to America?
The first one swam and the rest walked across on the dead fish.
Posted by: kenneth at May 10, 2005 02:43 PM