Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: bj229r on April 12, 2008, 06:08:51 PM
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350988,00.html
Cove High School in Texas, where half the students have at least one parent deployed, justified the punishment against Brandon Hill by saying he had violated the no-cell-phone policy when he took the call from his father, who is serving in Iraq.
"I have been going through a lot of stress lately and my dad’s like my best friend, so I go to him for everything," the sophomore told FOX News on Saturday.
"I needed to talk to him, so my mom got a hold of him on Yahoo and told him to call me, so I answered the phone call in class.
"I was pretty shocked, considering that several months before we left I had talked to the … assistant principal and thought everything was fine," Morris Hill said.
"Since my kid’s been going to the school we’ve had a pretty good working relationship."
And when his mother, Patricia Hill, tried to contact school officials, she received no response until her son’s story garnered media attention.
The matter has since been resolved, Patricia Hill said, but she added that more must be done to protect children around the country from being punished in similar circumstances.
Looks like he had previously arranged permission for this scenario--failing that, one might think school officials would let it slide after they found out the scenario.....but not a lot of military fans in public skool administration
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99% of the time I would agree with punishment for using a cell phone in class. This is the 1% (Along with a medical emergency).
Absolute BS on the part of the school, especially if it was pre-arranged, which the article hints that it was.
I hope the kid was able to finish his conversation without being interrupted by the school officals.
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The matter has since been resolved, Patricia Hill said
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(this will be a long, rambling post... so I'll just apologize in advance).
This is one of our local Soldiers & his family being spoken about in the article.
Seeing the effect that the back-to-back deployments (some have just returned from their third trip to Iraq since 2003) has on these kids is heartbreaking... and wonderful at the same time (I know, that's wierd, but true). They have shown more resilience through extreme hardship than many adults will have to endure during an entire lifetime. And through that time, many show more grace than I've ever seen. But it's through the constant bombardment of stress that these children are growing. Some deal with it much better than others.
The "previous arrangement" for phone calls that they're speaking of is this:
if a parent calls from Iraq (or Afghanistan), they call to the office, and then the child goes to the office to take the call. It is indeed true that sometimes the Soldiers only call for a few seconds... if they're calling from their cell phones, often the calls crap out...
The family here is saying that it would be too long of a wait, and too cumbersome for the call to be placed on hold in the office while the child comes up there to answer after being paged. So in spite of the "previous arrangement" (which is for all children which have a deployed parent, not just the family in question), this particular family chose to disregard that and send their child to school with the cell phone to accept calls.
The schools around this particular area described have done outstanding things for these kids (especially regarding counseling, and attentiveness to the increase in stress on these kids). It's sort of painting a one-sided picture in all of the news articles that I've seen. This school district (and several others in the immediate surrounding areas) are staunch, staunch, staunch supporters of our military service members. The schools have shown over and over their support of the soldiers here through direct support to the children which attend their schools.
I am sure that the "what if that's the last time I get to talk to him" question was out there, but I can't find the particular article I saw that at. Frankly, it's possible for them to think that every single day that their parent is gone, and it will actually be the case for some of these families. Many (too numerous to count) of the local families are living this reality for the third time in 5 years. These children have seen the white government vans full of Soldiers bearing bad news driving through their own neighborhood streets; and they stop breathing until after the van passes to continue on to another family. Then they cry and feel ashamed at having felt relief, almost joy, that it was someone else's Dad who died instead of their own. This is the reality that these children are living. And it can be, indeed, almost a complete emotional drain for them.
Will a call from their parent during school hours help children who are having a particularly difficult time? Probably. But if their emotional need is that great, they probably need a hell of a lot more than a phone call.
So, my final opinion:
I haven't decided if I'm for or against the cell phone calls from a deployed parent. My heart strings say yes, let them have the call. My head says they still have morning & evening calls, which probably get so frequent that they run out of things to say to one another after about 30 seconds & pass the phone off to the next family member.
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psshhh we got the same thing in my school. THATs why I text. I do it in class too. :P
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psshhh we got the same thing in my school. THATs why I text. I do it in class too. :P
you, my little dweeb, ARE PART OF THE FREAKING PROBLEM
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I think I read of some antidiodes going around with cell phone jammers in their pockets, so they could get a little piece and quiet in subways, theaters, etc.
If the technology exists, then all the schools need to do is get a jammer and the problem is solved.
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you, my little dweeb, ARE PART OF THE FREAKING PROBLEM
Yes.
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So the school caves in and allows calls from deployed parents. In two weeks kids all over the school are on their phones all day long talking to their “deployed parents”.
No, this wouldn’t happen; kids would never think of that and they would never twist a rule in their favor.
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I think Baghdad is 8 hours ahead? Kid's sgt father gets up at o-dark-30, has chow, has 5-10 of down time in which to call, else he tries 12 hours later, when his kid is presumably in bed asleep. Obviously the kid can't sit in class and blab on cell-phone, but I don't think it would be a big deal to hand the phone to the teacher and let him/her verify that Pop is indeed on the other end. and let kid step in hallway for a few minutes. With all the idiotic crap they waste time on teaching our kids, a few minutes to boost a kid's morale and clear his head talking to his father are minutes well-spent. One never knows when that last conversation might be--a National Guard soldier from our armory, Sgt. Jesse A. Ault, was killed the other day by an IED. At the risk of sounding like a greeting card, such moments are very important
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11831
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Picture if you will a wacked out parent calling his child to say he's coming to the school to beat up the teacher. Student refuses to answer the cell phone because school policy forbids it. Teacher gets beat up and hospitalized, students traumatized. Wonder how some of you would feel then? Calls from parents should always be allowed. Maybe the answer here is to have the parents given the teachers phone number and a school paid cell phone provided to the teacher for use in the classroom in case of emergency. Of course this means you the taxpayer would fund it and that abuse by the teachers or students will more than likely happen.
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Nah, I think we could do three pages of "what if's" on this one.
But the ultimate goaL would be to compromise between school being a place of study (not social), and the individual students still being able to talk to their deployed parent.
The school was correct in placing the requirement on the parent to call the office, and the child goes to the office to take the call. Eskimo's right about the taking advantage once the school liberalizes their policy.
I agree that those phone moments are importants... but morning & evening are there every day. And for those extraordinary circumstances in which the parent wants to talk to the kids during the middle of the school day (which would basically be the middle of the night for them), then I agree that it's correct to ask them to call the office.
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With the current rash of violence in classrooms i don't think that's to much to assume it's not a what "if" so much as a when. Also when you have children and they are in pain or need you do what you have to. I can't imagine the conversation that guy would have had with his c.o.. Sir i need to call the principles office at my sons school. Why soldier. Well he's having a tough time and needs to talk. Well your patrol goes out in 5 min so i don't think i can do that. Now i'm not sure what type of job his father has over there but it seems to me cut the kid and his dad some slack. There are idiots that abuse all rules but in this case i don't think i agree at all with the school. It's funny how we say parents don't play enough of a role in there childrens lives, then when one actually cares, we do everything we can to make it hard for them to do it. Pretty sad IMO. :(
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It's a worse situation when a parent is willing to show their children that rules don't apply to them as long as the benefit to themselves is great enough.
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It's a worse situation when a parent is willing to show their children that rules don't apply to them as long as the benefit to themselves is great enough.
I’ve never been in the military myself; are they big on rules?
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yanno whats amusing.along with just about everywhere else.
Since the advent of the cell phone. The schools here have rid themselves of pay phones.
My kids both took/take their cellphones to class and have them with them at all times which is against school policy in our town.
(Here they must be kept in your locker.)
During the school day they are to be kept on vibrate and not to be used unless or except to call or answer a call from either their mother or myself.
Violation of this rule will result in loosing the phone.
But if and when we call they are to answer the phone no matter where they are and no matter what they are doing. In school or out but especially if its in school because if either of us calls during a school day you can damn well bet its important.
Anything non vital but still important and we send them a text.
They are to worry about me more then the school.
As I told two of my kids principles (on different issues)
"I dont give a damn about your rules.
I give a damn about my rules.
When it comes to my kids when they are in conflict. My rules will always outrank your rules."
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Some schools/teachers allow cellphones the only rule is you can't use them in the classroom.
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With the current rash of violence in classrooms i don't think that's to much to assume it's not a what "if" so much as a when. Also when you have children and they are in pain or need you do what you have to. I can't imagine the conversation that guy would have had with his c.o.. Sir i need to call the principles office at my sons school. Why soldier. Well he's having a tough time and needs to talk. Well your patrol goes out in 5 min so i don't think i can do that. Now i'm not sure what type of job his father has over there but it seems to me cut the kid and his dad some slack. There are idiots that abuse all rules but in this case i don't think i agree at all with the school. It's funny how we say parents don't play enough of a role in there childrens lives, then when one actually cares, we do everything we can to make it hard for them to do it. Pretty sad IMO. :(
Yah, that's rather the point--father's schedule is quite inflexible and can only call for a few minutes with short notice much of the time, esp if he's doing convoy duty...the kid's schedule---no so much. But, TxMom's been there, so I'll defer to her judgment
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yanno whats amusing.along with just about everywhere else.
Since the advent of the cell phone. The schools here have rid themselves of pay phones.
My kids both took/take their cellphones to class and have them with them at all times which is against school policy in our town.
(Here they must be kept in your locker.)
During the school day they are to be kept on vibrate and not to be used unless or except to call or answer a call from either their mother or myself.
Violation of this rule will result in loosing the phone.
But if and when we call they are to answer the phone no matter where they are and no matter what they are doing. In school or out but especially if its in school because if either of us calls during a school day you can damn well bet its important.
Anything non vital but still important and we send them a text.
They are to worry about me more then the school.
As I told two of my kids principles (on different issues)
"I dont give a damn about your rules.
I give a damn about my rules.
When it comes to my kids when they are in conflict. My rules will always outrank your rules."
So, should all school rules be up to interpretation by parents?
Our school office regularly relays messages to students from parents or sometimes students are sent to the office for a call. This works very well and is very quick.
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its a bit of a hot button issue... i'm comfortable with a case by case decision by each teacher - who should know their kid. And let that stand.
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Then again, I think we should pay teachers 90k and hold them accountable. Education is that important to our country.. sorry for the sidestep.
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So, should all school rules be up to interpretation by parents?
Our school office regularly relays messages to students from parents or sometimes students are sent to the office for a call. This works very well and is very quick.
I dont care.
When it comes to MY kids.
My rules override everyone elses.
We haven had an important enough reason to call either one of my kids when they were in class directly.
Typically if there is something we want them to know we just text them. And they can read it between classes.
but they know if its ever a direct call from either of us. Damn to hell the rules and answer the phone.
I'll deal with the school on the issue myself.
There are two instances where I couldnt care less what the schools policies are. And they know not to worry about getting in trouble at school because of.
One is self defence.
They are never to be anyones punching bag.
The other is answering the phone when we call.
Both are non negotiable
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Then again, I think we should pay teachers 90k and hold them accountable. Education is that important to our country.. sorry for the sidestep.
If they worked a full year.
Based on the money they make for the days they work.
They already do.
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I dont care.
When it comes to MY kids.
My rules override everyone elses.
We haven had an important enough reason to call either one of my kids when they were in class directly.
Typically if there is something we want them to know we just text them. And they can read it between classes.
but they know if its ever a direct call from either of us. Damn to hell the rules and answer the phone.
I'll deal with the school on the issue myself.
There are two instances where I couldnt care less what the schools policies are. And they know not to worry about getting in trouble at school because of.
One is self defence.
They are never to be anyones punching bag.
The other is answering the phone when we call.
Both are non negotiable
I wouldn't object to those at all. As long as the parents/children are likewise willing to take the consequences. In the case of this kid: suspension.
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I wouldn't object to those at all. As long as the parents/children are likewise willing to take the consequences. In the case of this kid: suspension.
By the same token.
IF they ever get in trouble at school for a fight THEY started.
Or using their phone at scool for ANY other reason then to be in contact with one of us.
Suspension would be the least of their worries.