<p>Does the dad knows the number of the front office? When my Ss were in school, I had to look up the number. I did not have it memorized. But then, I had all the phone books, school handbooks (no websites for S1) at hand.</p>
<p>The soldier was not calling during an emergency; but he is probably highly restricted as to when he can call; he’s not in Iraq as a tourist on vacation, after all, and there is a time lag between Iraq and the US. Equally important, it seems the deal with the school was not that the dad would call the front office, but that he would be able to call his son. If the teacher did not get the memo, that’s not the kid’s fault.</p>
<p>According to the article, the kid was almost out of the class; so he would have missed only a few minutes of class. To show him the value of an education, he was suspended for several days. Great thinking!</p>
<p>Again, I don’t think the kid should be penalized because the teacher made a mistake - if anything, the teacher should be suspended.</p>
<p>But that said, I see this is far less urgent than a call that could come in relative to emergency, and no real reason why an arrangement couldn’t be with the front office. (and the dad given the number)</p>
<p>We have schools here near Fort Lewis with hundreds and hundreds of kids with parents in Iraq. Open season on cellphone in class would mean total chaos. But a real emergency would be if mom was in an auto accident five miles away or some such.</p>
<p>But arrangements HAD been made, with the Assistant Principal. And I believe that the men and women who are serving the country and sacrificing time away from their families have the right to trump a few minutes of classtime in order to communicate when the realities of conflict allow.</p>
<p>It has EVERYTHING to do with this issue. The school’s policy - the arrangement - was not a good one, but regardless, the teacher didn’t bother to read the memo about it.</p>
<p>They’re punishing the wrong person for violation of their policy, but it doesn’t mean the policy was the optimal one to begin with.</p>
<p>So to split the discussion up - I <em>agree</em> with mini that the student should not be punished for the communications failings of the school, which even now seems to be willing to lay its administrative disconnects at the feet of one of its students. I <em>disagree</em> with what I perceive is mini’s that no special consideration should be given - I believe that the school should put in the extra effort that is required to make it possible for the children of service members to communicate with their parents, especially in situations like this where the student communicated a need to do so as stated in several of the press reports.</p>
<p>Calling the front office would be a policy to consider - only problem is time. The soldiers, when they get a chance to call, do not have a huge amount of time. Putting a delay in place while the appropriate administrators are informed of the call, go seek out where the student is at the school, then interrupt the whole class by asking for a student, bring the student to the office, etc. seems much more of a burden that having a policy where teachers are given some kind of signal from a student that a military parents has called them.</p>
<p>I think you are, and pardon the expression, being elitist, or at least unknowing. I don’t think you have any idea of what schools with large numbers of military families are dealing with.</p>
<p>I DO think special consideration should be given - as they are for emergencies. But not to have cellphones going off in class.</p>
<p>Is there really such a thing as a “cell phone disrupter”? My son claimed he was told our hs had one. He pointed to a device near a 2nd floor window. Even dumb old me knew the device was a wind gauge, used by the Earth Science classes for weather study. </p>
<p>I think cell phones don’t work in lots of high schools for the same reason they don’t work well in lots of “big box” stores. The building has a steel frame, which acts as a huge antennae. Signals don’t get thru. Cell phone don’t work well in our hs at all, but they’re fine outside on the sidewalk or in the parking lot.</p>
<p>(Didn’t read the link, but common sense says all rules should have a few exceptions - phone calls from fathers serving on the front lines being two obvious ones. Other posters mentioned life-threatening emergencies. In that case I think calling the main office would be better, because a staff person could pull a child out of class into the relative privacy of the hall, and be supportive if the kid is finding out mom was in a car wreck or something similar. DS’s college parent newsletter states that if you have news of a serious emergency or death in the immediate family that you NOT call the student directly. They want you to call the Dean of the College, so arrangements can be made for support services for the student if necessary.)</p>
Actually, mini, I will not pardon the expression. </p>
<p>I take offense to being called elitist and/or ignorant. Having been in the military, having been officer in charge for units where reservists were called to active duty, and having worked with the different groups that interact with those service members who are called to duty, I have a very good idea what schools with large numbers of military families are dealing with. I think there are perfectly reasonable ways to maintain connections between family members that yes, intrude upon class time but in the grand scheme of things, are far more important.</p>
<p>I have close friends who provide mental health cousneling to members on base (Fort Lewis). Some of the kids (usually ages 7-8) are DEVASTATED when friends get calls from their dads and they don’t. That’s just the truth as a general matter. But what happens when that happens at school? What are the impacts, both emotionally, and on the academic environment?</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer about how to handle that. As I said, I think I favor allowing calls to come into the office, just as in emergencies, and have kids brought to the phones. I’m also aware that this could, at least in theory, mean a lot of kids being brought out, but on the other hand, likely better than a bunch of cellphones going off.</p>
<p>So don’t pardon me. I don’t particularly need it. But it would be nice to deal with issue at hand.</p>
<p>You changed the narrative line. The boy was not suspended for inflicting devastating emotional damage on his classmates but on disrupting learning for a few minutes.</p>
<p>I hate it when posters assume things about people they have never met (“you’re ignorant, insensitive, elitist, etc…”). Could we leave personal comments and wholly unwarranted assumptions out of it?</p>
<p>Remarkably, my response to that and any other internet-message-board-based assessment of my personality would be to paraphrase a famous quote that also includes the word “frankly.” Funny how that works. :-D</p>
<p>There was a similar case in 2005 where a high school junior received a phone call during lunchtime from his mom serving in Iraq. He was suspended for 10 days, later reduced to 3 when there was huge public outcry. It was pretty tough to have any sympathy for the school when you learned that the mom was allowed one phone call per month to her son, that she didn’t know in advance when she would be able to call him, and that she was a single mom (the boy’s father was deceased).</p>
<p>May I say…at our school of 4000 students, on a campus that sprawls for miles it seems, with student aides in charge of retrieving students to the office…hours could go by before that soldier’s son made it to the phone. My cousin served in Kuwait and then Iraq, and they were literally given minutes, unscheduled and subject to lost connections, to speak with family/loved ones…so taking the phone call in the school office seems like it would be very problematic.</p>
<p>But…I do understand what mini is saying. I had not thought of the effect on other soldiers’ children who have not spoken to parents. My husband is an Army brat, who missed his father terribly when he served in Viet Nam. So I can see this from mini’s pov.</p>
<p>Also, Copperas Cove is near Fort Hood, so it is conceivable there are quite a few military kids in the district. I think the ideal ‘policy’ is going to be one that is customized for each school district depending on student demographics re: military families. </p>
<p>So imho that means…mini, you are right…and dukegr, you are right too!</p>
<p>99.9999999% of the time when a cell phone goes off in class, it is non-emergency, unimportant, and a class disruption. Believe me. In this case, arrangements had been made. NOT A TYPICAL SITUATION. I’ve had student cell phones go off in my class and the parent is asking the kid to run a supermarket errand on the way home from school.</p>
<p>Another problem is texting. Kids can text w/o looking at the phone, keeping it on their laps, in their purses, etc. Whole new way of cheating. </p>
<p>Every teacher in my building is in favor of jamming cell phone signals during school hours. If there is a true emergency, for goodness sakes, call the office! The student will be notified immediately.</p>
<p>Taking a suspension for talking to your dad in Iraq?</p>
<p>Badge of honor in my book. Not a problem to explain on a college application at all. In fact, the subject for a great essay about what is really important in life…</p>
<p>Goalie, that only works if the admissions reps even get to the essay. A suspension could knock the kid out of contention before he gets a chance to explain. In my D’s school, a suspension gets girls kicked out of honor societies & other activities are curtailed (for example, competing in an academic bowl, athletics, etc.) All those restrictions have domino effects & could mean the difference between admission & rejection at many colleges. It’s simply a ridicuous & unfair black mark on a kid’s record.</p>
<p>okay I am a military wife, living in a town that 1/4 of the base is deployed…I actually see the school’s side.</p>
<p>When you have 50% of your students dependents of a military member at a Post that is 75% deployed, phones would be ringing off the wall all day long. I am sorry, but tally the numbers, if the school allowed him, well the next thing you know every deployed parent will be calling.</p>
<p>I would be on the childs side if this was back in 03, right after the invasion, or even 15 yrs ago…back then the AD member was allowed a telephone patch for 10 min. 1x a week, but now is totally different. Internet exists and also the mission is quite different. Obviously if the SGT could be on Fox on Sat morning for an interview, he is not somewhere without cable connection.</p>
<p>BTW, I can understand the time difference I lived through it for 4 months when DH was in the sandbox —Iraq in 04, difference is this time he could email me and call quite frequently using prepaid phone cards. 17 yrs ago when he went for Gulf I, the internet did not exist, nor did international prepaid phone cards.</p>
<p>Yeah, it may knock a kid out of a few things and a few schools do a quick filter on discipline (without reading the details) to kick out the “slightly blemished”. But if the read the discipline record (kicked out for inappropriate cell-phone usage), they won’t disqualify.</p>
<p>And yeah schools are often vindictive (1 strike and your out) for certain ECs, but most of those school based ECs are window dressing, unless you happened to be a someone like my daughter who is a single EC focus kid. Then it could be deadly. But then again, most college coaches know the talent and will look at the suspension for cell phone usage and laugh that if this is the worst thing the kid has done… Ask MomOfWildChild about getting into top schools with blemishes on the record.</p>
<p>I do agree that it is a ridiculous and unfair black mark.</p>
<p>Why do you think that the situation today is so different from that in 2003? Are American soldiers in less danger? (that would depend on exactly when the phone call happened).</p>
<p>How easy is it for American soldiers in Iraq to have access to email?</p>
<p>Do we know why the dad felt he needed to talk to his son at that particular time? Maybe it was to reassure him that he was okay despite having told him earlier (via email?) about potential danger? Something perhaps of a fairly urgent nature? Or was it just to chat and ask how the kid was doing?</p>