Obama Meeting Costs High School Class President His Office
It’s a controversy involving a president and a would-be commander in chief.
But the president, in this case, is an 18-year-old Pennsylvania high school student who claims he was forced to resign as head of his senior class because he skipped gym and left school to see Democratic presidential would-be Barack Obama.
Colin Saltry, a Scranton High School senior, and fellow classmate Joey Daniel reportedly bolted school on Monday to catch a glimpse of the Illinois senator during a campaign stop at “The Glider” restaurant, just minutes away from their school.
Saltry and Daniel say they met Obama, snapped photos with him, and even had the candidate sign excuse slips to present to their teachers.
But their decision to skip out did not sit well with school administrators, who said the students broke the rules by leaving school without permission.
Both Saltry and Daniel were issued one-day suspensions. Saltry also claims school principal Brian McGraw told him to “start writing his resignation letter,” according to the Scranton Times-Tribune Web site.
McGraw reportedly denied the claim and said Saltry voluntarily withdrew as class president.
The Obama campaign declined to comment on the controversy. McGraw was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, students at Scranton High School expressed outrage over Saltry’s resignation, posting online messages of support on his Facebook.com Web page.
The group site, which claims to be the official site for Saltry’s future presidential campaign — “sometime in the next 40 years” — was inundated with postings Wednesday by students angered over their classmate’s punishment.
“Help keep Saltry in office,” one statement read. ” Voice your support here on the wall or on his wall…Thanks for sticking by him and let’s rock 2008 right to the very bitter end!!!”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama signs the kid’s excuse - ummmm I thought you had to be a guardian… seems a lawyer should know that… oooops…
Then Obama’s campaign declines comment - leaves the kid hanging….
Now that is what I call Unity!
This poor kid will be clinging to his guns and religion in no time….
You people crack me up. Apparently the ignorant people posting comments about how “ridiculous” it is to punish kids for breaking rules are the same parents I have to put up with on a daily basis that constantly make excuses for their child’s laziness and inability to behave properly!
Give me a break. You want to know why America is slipping in the world… look at the slacker parents that give into their kids at every whim. These kids broke a school rule and were rightly punished… and I don’t care who they were seeing! They should have obtained permission.
this just shows what supporting obama will lead too!
Poor child……..you play, you pay! Maybe the next time you skip school do it for a good reason!
So he left school…so what. Have any idea how many kids skip school without an excuse and don’t get punished like this? Or how many have “doctor’s” notes. At least he was doing something constructive not going to a baseball game then telling the doc he had a headache and getting an excuse!
Break the rules and pay the price. I applaud the administration. The punishment should have been at least a weeks suspension. If you leave school grounds, you need permission no matter what the reason!
I skipped school plenty of times during the 2004 Presidential race….I think the few days I missed were far better spent meeting President Bush, Laura Bush, VP Cheney, and John McCain. I was never questioned about it and was never removed from my post as the class President (which I held during the election). The admins at this school need to smarten up and realize that this kid got way more out of meeting Senator Obama then he would have sitting around at school for a few more hours.
Even if you met the president the rules stand! You cannot leave school without permission. There may be many more opportunities to meet him in your lifetime, and to leave school even for a few minutes shows an example that it’s OK for other people to leave school without permission. When you’re President you have to set an example.
Schools are responsible for the students during school hours. They are expected to account for their presence and take appropriate action if they are not where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there. If something had happened to the students while they were skipping (car accident, etc.) the school could face liability since they are responsible for the students during school hours. The students put themselves and the school at risk. The punishment is appropriate.
Rules have consequences. Just because he skipped class to see a presidential candidate doesn’t excuse the rule breaking. If it was that important to him he would have scheduled it in advance to be out of class that day.
But who I am kidding, this is the “me” generation and their liberal apologist friends who excuse this kind of behavior as revolutionary. Personal responsibility, a dying value system.