A Philadelphia area mom, Maurine Callmann, went to see the principal at her son’s school to discuss a punishment that had been dolled out for her son, Austin, after he used a digital camera to take pictures of his friends in the school cafeteria. She thought it wasn’t fair that Austin had been given detention for taking pictures for a project his photography class had been assigned. The school’s anti-camera and anti-cell phone policy doesn’t specify that children aren’t allowed to complete assignments that involve taking pictures on school grounds.
But it wasn’t really the fact that Austin got detention that Callmann objected to, it was the way detention at the school is run. “I wanted to know why in detention do these kids have to sit for an hour or two with their hands completely folded in front of him,” Callmann told the local NBC affiliate when she was interviewed about the incident. “To me that was like being in a Nazi concentration camp.”
According to Callmann, the Vice Principal of the school didn’t listen long enough to hear her say “concentration camp.” Instead he jumped to his feet and accused her of calling the Principal a Nazi. Callmann still maintains that she had no such intention but the school administrators have banned her from school property for the remark. There are also reports that the ensuing argument was so loud that teachers and students in classrooms up and down the hall could hear it. Callmann was also cited for disorderly conduct and paid a $50 fine.
Callmann is trying to appeal the ban as it will bar her from her son’s upcoming graduation. In an appeal to the superintendent of schools she wrote, “I’ve paid my fine, I’ve obeyed, I’ve stayed away from the school, I haven’t done anything. I pose no threat.” Callmann did acknowledge in her interview with NBC that she may have been a little overly emotional about her son’s treatment in detention, but she “just felt for the kids.”
