What are we teaching our children?

I found this at Outside the Beltway:

I'm surprised to see this coming from Columbus, GA, home of Fort Benning:

Francois, a junior at Spencer High School in Columbus, was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch while talking to his mother who is deployed in Iraq, he said.
[...]
The incident happened when Francois received a call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. Francois said he went outside the school building to get a better reception when his mother called. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to get off the phone. But he didn't.
[...]
Francois said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."

Francois said the teacher tried to take the phone, causing it to hang up.

First, they know all about the Army and deployments in Columbus, GA. This teacher obviously was "flexing his muscles", and who has met a teacher or school administrator full of their "power"? The article doesn't say, but I'll bet the teacher wasn't punished for the poor way he handled the situation. And of course, the principal decides to back his teacher instead of doing the right thing: admonish both student and teacher and send them both back to class.

Second, the teacher tried to take the phone? Take something out of my hand and stand by while I call an ambulance to deal with your bloody stump!

Really, I thought schools were where we teach tolerance these days. Apparently, it's one-sided. Tolerate me telling you what to do or I'll physically make you do what I want. And the teacher probably thinks that behavior is ok because, after all, Francois is only a child. You and I both know that this teacher wouldn't do this at the local Cracker Barrel to another adult.

Ummmmm, Cracker Barrel.... now that's good eats!


Oh, and this is too little too late, if you ask me (actually it is how the incident should have started):

"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."