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.
Kid should have gotten permission to leave, an excused absence. Still… principals can get ‘high on their power’ and do things that are not fair. I’ve seen it happen tons of times and nobody is the wider until the media finds out about it, or concerned parents. Then the principal does a little dance trying to get out of the hot water.
Lesson learned at an early age, if we break the rules we can get people to back us for even higher goals. He opted to resign, so let him do it, or maybe just a good ploy to help cover the fact he broke the rules. If you create enough smoke you can hide in it, another wonder of the new age.
The poor child, he was punished for breaking the rules, what does that teach our children? Oh, perhaps it teaches them to take responsibility for their actions!
It seems to be a common problem all across America, teachers and administrators don’t have any common sense. No wonder our students are falling behind the rest of the world, Americans are being dumbed down by archaic system. Those who can think and be successful are, and those who can’t teach.
I am a stanch Republican and all my children and grandchildren have gone to private schools where discipline is strict but this is ridiculous. To punish a student for wanting to see a presidential candidate no matter who it is is absurd. There are so many horrible things going on in schools today but interest in our political process should be applauded not punished—he didn’t skip school to do something harmful and though I certainly do not
This kid might as well follow Obama’s lead and run for president now. He has about as much experience as Obama, maybe even more if he has responsibility for the Scranton High School student government budget.
He broke the rules. He needs to learn that there are consequences for breaking the rules. If there was something in the rules about his position as Class president being at risk for truancy then thats the way it is.
While he should be commended for being interested in the Prez race, he was in error leaving without permission. He should shut up, pay the price for doing what he knew was wrong. Just move on and quit whinning.
in this ciccumstance there is no exception,he still broke the school rules,he is still underage and if he was hurt in anyway,uho gets sued,of course the school,because they are responsible for him untill school is over and in the custody of his parents,how immature are these kids to think otherwise,thank you
Rules are rules and this student violated them so he must pay with punshiment set up by the school. You kids need to learn to follow the rules not try to bend them to your own advantage. No respect for authority I do not care if he was going to see the Pope, Rules are rules