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.
I can’t support this student skipping school. Yet, on the other hand I also can’t blame these students for wanting to meet or listen to someone who is making history. Being part of history in the make is the best education I can imagine.
Take your one day off but remember the event for the rest of your life and pass it on.
I think this is going a little to far. I guess it’s Obama fault he got in trouble. Just because Obama is involve it made headlines because everyday Joe Blow would have not made news!!
Good for the 2 young guys….they should skip that school entirely!!!! Bloody idiots!!! What has the US come to? They can’t teach but can “enforce” rules!!!! Good luch in the New Economy.
Tom
Canada
The rules are the rules they are made to keep order, Do not break the rules, You left School without permission you are at fault. Get over it and resign.
He deserved to lose his position. He is supposed to serve as a mentor and example to the other students. Instead, he made a poor choice and lost his position as a result.
How can anyone be upset with forcing the student to resign? Shouldn’t the student body president exhibit the kind of traits that should be encouraged in all students? Who cares if it would or would not have happened if he went to see Clinton? The bottom line is he did it, it was wrong, an untold number of consequences could have fallen on school officials for allowing students to leave without permission if they did nothing. This had to be handled this way and no other.
I am an uncle of one of the boys involved, Joey Daniel. Many of the commenters missed the point. The boys undertsand they broke the rules and, to their credit, have accepted their suspension without protest. The issue is whether Colin was FORCED to resign as class president.
By the way, some commenters have wondered why permission wasn’t obtained in advance. Obama’s trip to the diner was impromptu. The diner is acrross the street from the school and the boys saw what happened and decided that seeing (and, as it turns out, meeting) a major Presidential Candidate was worth the risk of punishment. The boys made a decison to be fottnotes to history, rather than go to gym class. Not a hard decision. And not a bad one either.
This has nothing to do with Obama or Hillary. The student got too excited to see his favourite candidate without school permission. That is truancy and there is a price for that. Fair. But we will only know if any prejudice was involved very soon and will come from the mouth of those who reprimanded the student. You watch and listen.
I know rules are rules, but to resign or be forced to resign for wanting to “get invloved” and “being excited about the political process” is different than slipping out to hang-out with gang-bangers or a girlfriend. The school administration and principal should NOT allow him to resign and if the suggested it - they prove to be an embarrassment to our nation ! What a horrible example to set for someone excited about the future of the US - you should be ashamed of yourself Brian McGraw !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its not like Obama was making speeches at a local town hall or whatever, he was in a restaurant. The school did the right thing disciplining those students for skipping school, especially since it could have became a liability issue.