Schoolgirl suspended for parodying Uncle Ho on Facebook TUOI TRE   A schoolgirl has been suspended from school for one year after posting a Facebook status that her school’s principal said insulted educators and distorted Vietnamese history. The management of Ly Tu Trong Middle School, located in the central province of Quang Nam, imposed the suspension on Nguyen Thanh V., a 14-year-old 8th-grader, on Friday, a local education official said. They discovered the student posting on December 17 an ‘appeal’ in Vietnamese aimed at fellow students on her Facebook page, which imitated the tone and wording of late President Ho Chi Minh’s call for a national uprising against French colonialism in 1946, to pass their upcoming end-of-semester exams. The 'appeal' urged Ly Tu Trong students to use every method possible to “fight the bọn (used before nouns to express offensive meanings in Vietnamese) giáo viên (teachers), and bọn phòng giáo dục (education board members)” because “they are determined to fail us once again.” “We would rather sacrifice all we have than retake our exams,” a sentence reads. “We must stand up!” Uncle Ho originally appealed to his people to “fight the French colonialists to save our country” because “they are determined to occupy our country once again.” “We would rather sacrifice all we have than lose our country or become slaves,” the late leader said. “Dear my people, we must stand up!” V.’s Facebook status also encouraged the students to utilize many types of cheating, including the use of cheat sheets and copying one another’s answers, in order to score well on their tests. Repeated misbehavior Nguyen Tan Si, Ly Tu Trong’s president, said that V. had seriously affronted the school and her teachers, and even worse, deformed Vietnamese history with her Facebook post. Many of her friends showed their erroneous awareness when they supported the status, Si said, adding that at the time V. was on another three-day suspension following a fight with schoolmates. The educator revealed that his staff had met with V.’s family three times regarding her repeated poor conduct at school, but the student had shown little improvement. He said that the school decided to dismiss her for a year only after they had already discussed the penalty at three separate meetings. “To some extent this was a failure for us to suspend the student,” the president said, “but we had to discipline her as it was a severe violation of national education regulations.” “But she can still return to school after the dismissal if her conduct improves,” he said. In the meantime, V. said that she copied the status from another Facebook page, making some modifications and posting it just for fun. “Many of my classmates also uploaded a similar status to their Facebook pages,” she said, “so I simply thought it was purely for other friends to read and laugh. I didn’t mean to insult my teachers.” Too strict Some have said the school was too strict with V., even though they agreed on maintaining discipline at school. Tran Van Nhut, a Quang Nam education chief, said that the suspension could possibly spoil the student further, noting that he advocated taking better control of students for better education. “But the return of a student to his/her family for one year would probably make him/her naughtier,” Nhut said. The punishment is rather severe for an 8th-grader, Bui Ba Dung, a Quang Nam-based lawyer, remarked. “We should be careful in punishing a child so strictly, as it could badly impact her life, and things would be more complicated then,” Dung said. “Rules are rules, but their application is something that should be carefully considered.” N.D.V., V.’s father, said he feels embarrassed by the amount of attention he has paid to work, without caring for his daughter. “I have stayed home for a few days for fear that she may do something stupid,” the father said. “My family is really worried because she has become very quiet now and always tries to avoid strangers.”