If the father called the school and asked to talk to his kid would they have got the kid?
I'd say it's 50/50. They may have instead just taken a message. Even if they did get him, that's going to take quite a bit of time (depending on the size of the school)...time that dad doesn't necessarily have (see below, and previous post).
When I was over seas, it was a major endeavor to place a phone call to the states. Ok things as better now but you don't just pick up the phone and make the call!
It's not great now, either. At our FOB it could get up to a 2 hour wait for phones, or longer. Generally you'd sign up, go away for an hour, then come back for the second hour and wait...because if you got skipped, it was back to the back of the line. And calls were limited to 15 minutes. It may have gotten better in the last couple years, but with more soldiers I'd actually not be surprised to find out that it's worse.
One time I asked to go to the rest room. The instructor said no you can wait until break. I got up and did what I had to do!
The kid did what he had to do!
I'd say the consequences of denial are a little different in the two cases. I was in a situation where the teacher said I couldn't go to the bathroom too, and I just went. They actually tried to take it up the chain and cause some trouble, but the principal was pretty clear that you couldn't deny somebody that particular trip.
Some teachers are just on power trips. At the same time, keeping a class of 30 teenagers isn't exactly easy sometimes.
Schools are there to learn in.
They are not institution of control.
True. At the same time, this is the kind of thing that, if it
was allowed to go on unchecked, could be pretty easily abused and lead to a disruptive environment that isn't conducive to learning. So yes, some semblance of control must be maintained.
Sending the kid to the principal was probably a good call. Put me in the principal's chair, and I'd probably do a few things: I'd get in touch with the mother to ascertain who the call was from and that it was okay with her, make it clear that this was
not going to be an everyday thing, then tell the kid I hope his dad's doing alright. Sounds like this principal was a bit more of a douchebag. But to some extent, that's their prerogative.
And again, it's probably best that the kid learn now that military deployments aren't a free pass with everybody, and some places will still enforce their rules/policy regardless.