Women Soldiers Overseas: Not a Cost-free Option

In yet another story from my home state, a Columbus, Georgia, student was suspended for ten days for refusing to hang up his cell phone when he mother phoned him -- from Iraq! It seems that Kevin Francois, a 17-year-old at Spencer High School in Columbus, was at lunch when his phone rang with his mother on the other end.

Students are allowed to carry cell phones to school, but they're not allowed to use them during school hours -- a policy that seems designed to be broken.

Francois said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."

Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction when he was asked to give up the cell phone.

"Kevin got defiant and disorderly," Parham said. "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."

I have no reason to doubt that he became "defiant," and I absolutely sympathize with any teacher trying to maintain control over students. But here's the rest of the story:

His mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, left in January for a one-year tour and serves with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

"This is our first time separated like this," said Francois. Since her deployment overseas, Francois has been living with a guardian in Columbus.

A couple of things come to mind. First, even given the mad schedule that our military personnel doubtless maintain in Iraq, surely his mother could understand that she shouldn't call during school hours. Perhaps she tried to reach her son during lunch, thinking that any teacher would understand and look the other way just this time. And perhaps the teacher should have done just that. Allowing one student to hear from his mother wouldn't upset the apple cart, I think, especially in this case. But that's not my principal point.

Note that Kevin's father isn't mentioned and that, with his mother abroad, he's living with a guardian. That leaves the impression that his mother is his only available parent.

Which brings me to point number two. Do we, as a nation, feel comfortable sending mothers abroad to serve in the military at the expense of remaining at home to raise their children? If this is what the feminists of the '70s wanted, are they pleased with the outcome of this gender-neutral approach to child-rearing or military deployment?

I'm not arguing that women shouldn't join the military; my point is simply that, when kids like Kevin must go a year without seeing their parent, the least of their worries (and ours) is whether or not they can speak to a distant mother during school lunch hour. More pressing is the question, what happens to the Kevins of America the rest of the year?

Update: Michelle Malkin, who, unbeknownst to me, had already posted on this story, links to this article in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, which presents a more complete picture of the event. The most pertinent additional information is as follows:

1. The teacher tried to take away Kevin Francois's phone, and during what must have been a minor scuffle, the call was dropped.
2. Kevin's defiance included cursing at two assistant principals.
3. School personnel tried to work out a compromise, to no avail. Here's how the paper describes it:

Parham [an assistant principal] said the student used profanity when he was taken into the office. He said he tried to work out something with the student. But Francois said he was too frustrated he couldn't answer the phone when his mother called him the second time.

"I even asked Kevin, 'You know we can try to work something out to where if your mother wants to call you she can call you at the school,'" Parham said. "So we've tried to work with Kevin and we're going to continue to try to work with Kevin and his mother and his relatives. In the course of good order and discipline, we have to abide by our policy."

3. The student took partial responsibility for his actions, saying that he shouldn't have reacted as he did, but that he should have been allowed to take the call.
4. His mother calls far less often than I'd assumed:

For Francois, he said he gets to hear from his mother once a month, and phone calls vary depending on when she can use the phone in Iraq. Francois said his mother calls as late as 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and tries to catch him during hours he's awake. He said the phone call Wednesday was the first time she called him while he was at school.

5. He's worried about his grades, with good reason, and about the possibility that summer school is in his future:

Francois, who said he's been struggling with his grades in school, wants to go back to school and finish the rest of his year. He fears he may have pay for summer school because of his punishment.

"My grades had been low, but I was bringing them up. My grades were coming back up. On one of my report cards I had like a 'F' in one of my classes, but I brought it back up to a low 'C.' This just brought me all the way down."

I think all of this strengthens my original points.

Update II: The Ledger-Enquirer is running an unscientific poll in which you can vote on "Should Muscogee County schools make an exception in their cellular phone policy for students whose parents are serving in Iraq?" Remember that this is Columbus, Ga., home of Fort Benning.

Update III: Reader Anne Tomlin emails to note that, in the article from the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer I cited above, I neglected to mention some information that sheds light on the difficulties faced by this Army mother and her son:

Bates [the mother] came to Fort Benning with her son from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. She enrolled him at Spencer in August. Since her deployment overseas, Francois, whose father was killed when he was 5 years old, lives with a guardian who has five children in Columbus.

So there's no father at all in the picture, and the mother is in Iraq. Again, I think this points to the need to think through such situations very deliberately before sending a widow with a high school-aged child overseas for an entire year.

Update IV (Sat.): CNN reports that Kevin Francois will be allowed to return to school Monday, May 9, after a three day suspension, down from the original ten day penalty. Muscogee County School District Superintendent John Phillips, Jr., said that the teacher, a woman, said that Francois didn't tell her that he was talking to his mother when she tried to get him to hang up.

"I'm sure if she was aware of that, she would have acted much differently in dealing with the matter," Phillips said.

Phillips said the school, which is located near Fort Benning, often arranges for students to receive calls from parents who are deployed. More than 3,700 students in the district come from military families.