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.
Break the Rules: Pay the Price!
School Officials need to take back our schools! Teachers should teach subjects to which they were hired to teach, students should learn school is where they go to learn the basics and parents should be more involved in teaching this generation to be respectful. I raised my 4 young adults to respect the rules, respect their teachers and others in positions of authority, respect their right to be free but to also know where the boundries lie. Yes, you have the right to freedom of speech, you have the right to be heard, but you also have the right to a fair education free of political influences. Remember the voting age is 18 years of age. Take that 18 years to gain knowledge instead of blindly following either party lines. Don’t use MY tax dollars to break rules to be politically involved, DO IT ON YOUR OWN TIME! Schools are a place of learning that with life come rules, if you were at a job and just took off to go see a candidate i would see a reprimand in your portfolio. Call me old fashion but we need some good old fashion lines of decency.
Some people crack me up.
Those who think it is simply “ridiculous” to actually hold these people accountable for breaking the rules must be the same parents I deal with on a daily basis that continually make excuses for their lazy children and find everyone else to blame for the fact that they aren’t there for their kids.
These kids skipped school without ANY permission. They broke a rule, and they must own up to the consequences. It’s plain and simple, folks. It’s the same for any adult in any organization.
The problem that is starting to develop in America is that everyone feels that they should be an exception to the rule. For crying out loud. Quit whining, deal with the consequences, and move on.
Sounds like the foxes (students) are in charge of the henhouse (teachers).
If administrators do not get in control of the students in schools, we will continue to see a “dumbing down” at all schools. The students heads are full of mush that must be turned into thinking brains by competent instructors.
The only rights students should have is to have the opportunity to learn,
to be safe from any kind of dangers or abuse, sexual, physical,etc.
This is ridiculous!! The school should have been encouraging all students to get involved in the primary election. What is wrong with our educators today? As a senior in high school, my 18 year old daughter was given an unexcused absence when she went to school late because she registered to vote….just absurd!
Speaking of breaking rules…..That’s exactly what Michigan & Florida did, so they need to be
taught a lesson TOO. Mighty funny You HILL -RAISER and HILL-PACRITES didn’t think that
punishing those 2 states for breaking the Primary rules when they moved their dates up was
FAIR. Kids learn from adults, if the H.S. student from PA has to pay the price for his actions
then the MI & FL voters have to pay a price for their state officials actions.Who better to set
example then our states electd officials.
Regarding Tim Franklins response. The student in question is 18 years old and does not need a note from his parents. He is considered a legal adult .
Obama should not have given out a permission slip. He is not the child’s parent. Another example of Obama’s poor judgement and arrogance. Would Obama like someone to give his children a permission slip to skip class? What an ego.
This “adult” seems to be more like the class clown than the class president. First he breaks a rule he knew about then apparently lies about being forced to resign his “position”. Sounds like he may make a good politician. Wonder what party will support him?
Ak
We encourage our young people to be leaders and to get involved and this is what they get. OK ! so maybe they should have gotten a note from mom n dad in advance, but what they did does not warrant this kind of action from the school or their district. SHAME OF THEM.
The kids should have gotten permission from their parents. They should have thought about this ahead of time. They knew the rules and therefore they knew that skipping would cost them. However, if they knew the consequences for what they were doing and were willing to accept - another story.
Student body reps are normally voted in by their peers. If the school allows the students to put into office whom they will by vote, this in essence is allowing students to gain an understanding of the representational vote. Let the students vote if they should be removed. However, let the teachers who act as guides give the proper understanding to all the student body about the consequences of those who act outside of the norm and expect not to be held in total accountability prior to the vote. Here is the interesting part, there are times when the majority is incorrect as well. This of course is determined what one holds as truth and that according to degrees of bias.