Apr

12

Student Suspended from School for Taking Phone Call from Father in Iraq.

April 12, 2008 |  Tagged , , , |

Outrage wouldn’t even begin to tell you how I feel about this.

Channel 25 News reports that a student at Copperas Cove High School near Waco, Texas was suspended from school for taking a call on his cell phone from his father, Master Sergeant Morris Hill, who is currently stationed in Iraq. This is the first time the student was caught using his cell phone, yet was still suspended from school.

The original story ran on April 4th, and by the time of this story on April 9th the school had still not responded to request by the studen’t mother Patricia Hill to tell why her student was suspended. She also wants the rule changed so that students who have a parent serving abroad can take a call from their parent.

The Coppperas Cove I.S.D. wouldn’t reply to specific questions, but replied in general that they do a have policies in place and that cell phone use is not allowed during instructional time. Mrs. Hill disagrees that this would be overly disruptive and says,

Some people say it’s disruptive. Well that’s fine. All he has to do is walk by the teacher’s desk and say it’s my dad in Iraq and walk out the door.

A video of the Channel 25 news report can be seen here.

I watched an updated news report on Fox News this morning, and the school has finally contacted Mrs. Hill and changed their policy to allow students to take these calls. They interviewed both the student and his mother. The student said that nearly half of the other students at this school have at least one parent serving abroad. At the end of the interview, they surprised the student with a call from his father. After a couple of questions, they allowed the student to continue the call off camera.

Mrs. Hill has written Senators, Congressmen, and even the Vice President in order to raise visibility into this very important issue. I will be contacting my local school district, and my elected representatives as well.

For the men and women that sacrifice much for our country, it is vitally important that we provide as much support for them as possible, and certainly not interfere with the few opportunities that they have to contact their family back home. A slight interruption during class is a small price to pay to honor our men and women serving in harm’s way by allowing them to stay connected to their family whenever they have the opportunity.

It is because of those that serve and protect the freedoms we have that our children are able to receive an education in the first place.


Comments



3 Comments so far

  1.    cove high school texas Trendy Here! on April 12, 2008 2:01 pm

    [...] phone from his father, Master Sergeant Morris Hill, who is currently stationed in Iraq. … credit : [...]

  2.    Patrice Curtiss on April 12, 2008 3:50 pm

    Let the kid talk to his dad. Good grief! I am an English teacher in Minnesota, and I know that cell phones can be disruptive. Nevertheless, on two different occasions I have had a student ask if he/she could take a call from a parent. I have allowed it, and afterwards each of those students explained why the call was so important. It’s a new world, but for some reason, the classroom is slow to adapt.

  3.    asd on April 19, 2008 5:15 am

    It was a non-essential call. The mom told the dad to call the child because he had received an in-school suspension for texting with a friend and had many other problems. She couldn’t deal with it herself? This needed to be handled by the father right away? At that time? How much would he really be able to work out with the kid in a short phone call? I’m sorry, but I fully understand the school’s position on this subject and feel the kid’s parents abused the privilege provided to them. Others call the front office and have their kids called out of class to take the call there. There were plenty of other times the father could have contacted the child without causing such a disturbance. They messed things up for many families in that area, who have a parent deployed, and they are not happy with how this kid’s mother is dealing with this particular issue to draw attention to herself.

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