High School Student Suspended For Talking To His Mother in Iraq

At Spencer High School in Columbus, Georgia, the students are allowed to have cell phones in school, but they are forbidden from using them during school hours. According to the assistant principal at Spencer, Alfred Parham, "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."

Kevin Francois, a 17-year old junior, was at school with his cell phone when he received a phone call from his mother, who is a soldier in Iraq. He was excited to hear from her, so he went outside the school building to get better reception so he could enjoy the conversation. "This is our first time separated like this," said Francois, whose father was killed when he was 5 years old. Since his mother’s deployment overseas, Francois has been living with a guardian in Columbus. His mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, left in January for a one-year tour. She serves with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, doing her duty to support our country in the war on terrorism.

The call came at 12:30 p.m. which Francois said is his usual lunch break, so he went outside to take the call. A teacher happened to see him talking on his cell phone and told him to hang up. He refused, telling the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I’m not about to hang up on my mom." At that point the teacher tried to grab the phone, with Francois desperately trying to hang onto it. and the teacher accidentally hitt a button that caused it to hang up abruptly. The teacher then marched Francois to the school’s office to surrender his phone. His mother called again at 12:37, but by then the phone was turned off and she had to leave a message scolding her son for hanging up on her, and telling him that he is supposed to answer the phone when she calls.

According to the assistant principal, "Kevin got defiant and disorderly" when he was asked to end the call. Parham said the suspension was based on Francois’ reaction to the teacher when he was asked to give up his phone. "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." Apparently they didn't mind causing Kevin any hardship, though. He was suspended for the rest of the school year, resulting in him having to make up the entire semester just for talking to his mother, a soldier serving in harm’s way to protect his right to talk to her on a cell phone in the first place. But after the story made national headlines and drew sharp criticism from the public, the school district reduced the suspension to three days instead of ten, which will allow Francois to return to school on Monday, and he will not have to make up the entire semester.

Apparently the fact that Francois was on his lunch break (not in class) and he was talking to his mother in Iraq (not chatting with a friend) wasn’t important enough for the school system to lift the suspension entirely. It took great public outcry for them to even reduce it to three days instead of ten. What kind of school system would allow school policy to take precedence over common sense?