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.
He’ll look back at this and laugh. Who cares about being class president, really. He can still put it on his resume. And he was able to meet Obama. The degree to which school officials are inflexible these days has reached epic proportions.
The kid broke the rules and has to pay the price. I doesn’t matter why he broke the rules. I would not be surprised if he has had other incidents at the school.
So Obama continues to reinforce his elitest attitude by signing a “Permission Slip” for two highschool students who skipped school to see him. I’m very happy these school officials were not going to allow their authority to be usurped by a politician! But what does it say about the politician? Should he not have said. “you should not be here but in school.”? I can think of some former candiates who would have done just that. But America threw them aside as too conservative.
Obviously, the pain of the sub-prime mess was not enough to awaken us. What pain must we endure to realize we’ve lost our since of right and wrong, ethics, morals, selflessness, and culture? I hope its not the ultimate pain; our loss of freedom under our constitution.
How many of you who read this, will continue to brand people like me as Alarmist?
He got suspended for skipping school. He should have asked for permission; instead he skipped and has to suffer the punishment. My guess would be that a suspension would disqualify him from being the class president as would the same maybe have an effect on sports teams, band and other organizations. Privilages not rights.
The BIG QUESTION is why wasn’t everyone so concerned about the example the leader of our country was setting when he lied under oath??? Did he resign? I don’t think so. HIs wife stood behind and beside him. And now the people of Pennsylvania want him back?
Obama wrote them a note for their principal to say it was okay?
Who does he think he is?
Kids have class and go to school and that is not a legitimate reason to skip class.
But I also didn’t know kids lose their student council job if they skip 1 class.
There are consequences for breaking rules and this should be primary lesson taught to all students by all schools. People holding office are to set examples by obeying those rules not breaking them.
This rebellious young man was considered a leader and needs to be removed from his honored position.
Boy am I glad you were not around in the summer of 1776. Real leaders sometimes make judgment calls that may ruffle the feathers of others. It is pretty narrow minded to state that those who are leaders and go against the grain are somehow wrong.
The boy made a mistake. If this is the worst judgment mistake he makes in his life time than we should all breathe a sigh of relief. Making him resign his office is a bit much. In most student government systems it is up to the “general assembly” to remove its leader. I wonder if the principal ever made a bad judgment call. Resignation is a bit overdone, perhaps censure would have been better.
This kid is 18. He has reached the age of majority and was participating in a political rally. he was excersizing his civic duty to vote and showing support for a political candidate. the young man in my opinion was justified in rationalizing that his time was better spent taking an active interest in the community at large rather than attending a gym class. He is a graduating senior for gods sake. He obviously is generally a good kid and well liked to have made it to the office of senior class president. Certainly we can trust him to make this slight deviation from the norm. Most kids his age that cut classes are not doing anything valuable with that time except drinking or doing drugs. cut him some slack.
I note that the Associated Press contributed this report. It figures.