Penalty reduced for student who took call from mom in Iraq
School says he was suspended for behavior, not phone call
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 Student suspended after dispute following cell phone call from Iraq.
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(CNN) -- A Columbus, Georgia student will return to class Monday after serving three days' suspension that began when his mother called him on his cell phone from Iraq, where she is deployed.
Kevin Francois was initially suspended for 10 days for what Spencer High School officials said was his use of profanity after a teacher interrupted the conversation.
His mother's name is Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, according to The Associated Press.
The suspension gained national attention Friday, prompting a flood of e-mails to school officials. By Friday afternoon, they told Francois his 10-day suspension would be shortened to the three already served.
"All I want to do is just go back to school," Francois said.
Muscogee County School District Superintendent John Phillips Jr. said Friday the suspension was not because of the phone call, but the result of Francois' reaction to the teacher interrupting it.
"The suspension was really incidental to the telephone. It was the behavior of the student, using profanity, screaming at the teacher," Phillips said.
"He became very belligerent and very threatening to her" when she asked him to turn over the phone, Phillips said.
"He said he was 17 years old and he would do what he wanted to do," Phillips told CNN-affiliate WTVM.
The teacher took him to the principal's office, where "he became very unruly and out of control," said Phillips. "It was escalating to a point where they were getting ready to call security."
Francois disputed the school's version of the story.
"I was just talking to them and they wouldn't listen to me about talking to my mom," he said. "I didn't curse at them."
Francois received the call from his mother, who left for duty in Iraq in January, during a lunch break.
Phillips said the teacher was not aware at the time Francois had been speaking with his mother.
"I'm sure if she was aware of that, she would have acted much differently in dealing with the matter," Phillips said.
Phillips said the school, which is located near Fort Benning, often arranges for students to receive calls from parents who are deployed. More than 3,700 students in the district come from military families.
Francois lives with an aunt while his mother is deployed, the superintendent said. They are scheduled to attend a meeting at the school Wednesday to discuss Francois' behavior, but given his return on Monday, it's not clear if the meeting still will be held.
The student knew it was against school policy to use a cell phone on school grounds, Phillips added.
"We try to protect instructional time. We try to make sure the environment in the school is appropriate," Phillips said. "The young man knows what the rules and regulations are."
Muscogee County is located at the Alabama state line, in west-central Georgia.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
