When her husband comes home to Tucson on leave from Iraq, Keila Rios could face a dilemma she finds infuriating.

She plans to take their children out of school for a week to spend time with their Army dad.

But when she asked for makeup work they could do at home, she initially was told they'd receive zeroes if they didn't go to class.

The head of the charter school they attend declared the absences inexcusable and told the Arizona Daily Star that Rios' children would not be allowed to make up missed assignments. It now seems the principal is reconsidering, though that couldn't be confirmed late Thursday.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," said Rios, 29, of her Monday conversation with Lee Griffin, principal and founder of Children Reaching for the Sky, an elementary charter school at 1844 S. Alvernon Way.

Her husband, Staff Sgt. Enrique Rios, 30, is due home sometime next week for a two-week rest and relaxation leave. Some of it falls during the school's spring break and the family asked for an extra week off.

Keila Rios said Griffin told her that families pull kids out of class for all kinds of reasons — from beauty contests to Disneyland vacations — and said it wouldn't be fair to approve her request for makeup work when he's refused the others.

"I said, 'We're not talking about Disneyland here. Their father has been at war for the last eight months and all we have is this little bit of time together.' God forbid if he goes back to Iraq and something happens to him," Keila Rios said.

Enrique Rios, a Cholla High Magnet School graduate, is overseas with the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C. His wife and children are living in Tucson with his parents while he's at war.

The couple has an 11-year-old daughter, Khalina Polanco, and an 8-year old son, Andres Rios, attending the charter school, and a 2-year-old boy at home.

"I'm disgusted," Enrique Rios wrote in an e-mail to the Star. The principal "obviously isn't a patriot and has no understanding of what it is like to put your life on the line," he said.

Griffin told the Star he is a former soldier himself, and that he supports the troops and sympathizes with the family.

The Rioses are "awesome" parents and their children are exceptional students — but rules are rules, he said in a telephone interview Thursday morning.

"We have a policy saying we don't give out makeup work for unexcused absences. We can't pick and choose and give preferential treatment."
Several hours later, it appeared Griffin might be backing away from his hard line.

Keila Rios said she received a phone call from him around 4 p.m. Thursday. She said Griffin then said he was prepared to view her situation as a family emergency, and as such, her children could make up missed classwork.
Griffin could not be reached after that by the Star.

State law gives school principals discretion to decide when an absence is excusable. Several principals contacted Thursday said they'd have no problem accommodating a military family in the Rios' situation.

"Oh my goodness, yes," said Jerry Gallegos, principal of Manzo Elementary School, a public school on the West Side. "If the dad just came back from Iraq, I would honor the parents' wishes."

Clay Connor, principal of Academy of Tucson Elementary School, a Northeast Side charter school, said military families at his school have been in the same situation.

"We would try to come up with a win-win solution," Connor said. "We work with the parents when there are extenuating circumstances."
Keila Rios said she hopes her last talk with Griffin marked the end of the problem.

She and her husband "have been worrying all week," she said. "It was very upsetting to think the children's grades would suffer if they spent time with their dad."


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thats sickening to even think that the principal would take that sort of stand on the situation.

That's the policy here. In fact, here miss seven days period even excused absences in the semester then they fail the semester, which means the year.

If you guys think the school system has anything to do with family, you're grossly mistaken. In CA, they can't even mention family in their school books.

We talk about when we had the greatest school system in the world but forget it was 8 to 3 off for three months in summer and time off to harvest the family crops or even go deer hunting with dad.

Its all about political indoctrination now and accommodating the lowest common denominator. Welfare mom, the special chosen citizen, is not in the Army.

Tj

What a crock.

My Sister and BIL had the same thing happen to them when he came home for R&R from Iraq. It wasn't Spring break or anything and she wanted to take the boys out of school for a week and the principal said no, it was not an excused absence and they would fail. She didn't get all excited about it. My BIL went to the school his first day back and asked the principal to excuse the absences. At first he was told no, but came around when he was shown photos of what my BIL was dealing with in Iraq. There may have been a veiled threat in there somewhere, IDK, but I do know that later that afternoon the principal showed up at the house with the boys assignments for the days they were going to miss.