A Call for Grown-Ups

So maybe -- just maybe -- the high school junior with the cellphone didn’t tell the teacher he was talking to his mom, an Army sergeant in Iraq. And he definitely got mouthy. But by letting a small incident of semi-rule-breaking escalate into a 10-day suspension, the grown-ups at Spencer High in Columbus, Ga., showed they know how to let a teenager gain the upper hand.

Adolescents -- and everybody else -- can be a real pain with their cellphones, and some students think nothing of conducting a lengthy chat during the teacher’s lecture. The Georgia school district had a reasonable rule that allowed cellphones on campus but banned their use during school hours. Strictly speaking, that would include lunch break, which was the point in the school day last week when Kevin Francois’ mother called from Iraq. A teacher immediately stepped in to demand that he hang up.

What happened next is as hotly disputed as what Michael Jackson did or didn’t do with young boys in bed. At some point, the 17-year-old started cursing and was hustled to the office, where he was suspended.

After a public outcry that the punishment was downright unpatriotic, the school reduced the suspension to three days. Spencer teenagers are surely doing some snickering at the principal’s expense this week.

Let’s take Iraq out of it for the moment. A 10-day suspension for talking on a cellphone and cussing? Surely school authorities -- who supposedly know how to handle kids -- could have managed something more constructive with a mildly misbehaving youth than to have him miss two weeks of classes. Something like wait until his conversation was over, have a talk with him and help him figure out a way to be in touch with his mom and obey school rules at the same time. Part of the adult role is to model how disputes are best settled. Where were the grown-ups in the room?