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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Afterschool Detention Wrongly given?

132 replies

cazbate · 05/03/2015 17:55

yesterday my son was supposed to give in a homework that had to be done on a computer. my printer has no ink and the library was closed and others were broke.hes doing his GCSEs had he didn't have time to run about trying to print it of. he did not have the teacher that day and he had to give it in in his own time. he went in the morning and she wasn't there. at the end of the day she sent a student to collect them. someone gave it in and he told the teacher his just needed to be printed. he was off on the day it was given so he had to Wednesday as it was supposed to b for Tuesday. if it wasn't in for Tuesday it was a lunch time detention. not in for the nextr day it was an afterschool. he even reminded her twice that his was for Wednesday. in the letter she sent it said the deadline was Tuesday. the others didn't give it on Tuesday so they wud get an after school but Wednesday was my deadline. today he got told I have an afterschool detention. but he had it. the teacher said where was his and showed her the USB stick and said he just needed to print it off. she wrote that down and the student left. why is he getting an afterschool detention. he could not get it printed of. what was he supposed to do. he does have other much more important subjects to deal with (the homework was for journalism and he missed a bit of maths and biology to deal with this.)

OP posts:
EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 05/03/2015 19:26

the majority of his friends don't even own a printer

Q. So how did they manage to hand in their work on time?
A. They planned ahead and made provision for it

This is something your son needs to learn. As others have said, he could have emailed the work, or gone into school earlier in the morning or during his lunch break to use one of the printers. You are making excuses for him, and it is inexcusable.

Sorry, but YABU

spanieleyes · 05/03/2015 19:26

Talk about unlucky!
Your printer runs out of ink
The library is closed ( presumably for three days)
the teacher mysteriously disappears and can't be found
the school printers are locked up
the attachments aren't working
no-one knows any e-mail addresses

Don't ever buy a lottery ticket will you, with your bad luck, it's a complete waste of time!

ilovesooty · 05/03/2015 19:28

Amazing how some parents think their precious little snowflake can't possibly be being economical with the truth.

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 05/03/2015 19:37

to be fair to the OP and her DS, our school's IT sometimes fails like this and won't let you access documents or emails. The previous system used to throw hissy fits if you tried to access your work area from home using Virgin (something to do with IP addresses?), so everyone had to email work to themselves constantly.

So it may very well be that the DS couldn't send an attachment. Am Hmm about the rest though [owner of 3 great-at-making-up-reasons-why-it's-not-their-fault-ers].

DuchessofBuffonia · 05/03/2015 19:38

If you don't know the exact email, you just send it to the main school office with the header: FAO Ms Journalism

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 05/03/2015 19:40

he has others classes to deal with than having to constantly leave class to sort out this homework

Cazbate - ALL students have other classes and subjects to deal with. They have to learn to deal with them. You should not be getting involved, except to support his teachers. They are trying to educate and do their best for him. Don't work against them.

My DS was a nightmare. I was ALWAYS getting calls from his teachers when he was doing his GCSEs for not handing in homework. DS ALWAYS had excuses as to why he hadn't been able to do it, but he got no sympathy from me.

ThereIsACarInTheKitchen · 05/03/2015 19:44

Jesus Christ, I really do feel sorry for teachers. All the crap they have to put up with.

When I was given detention at school I just got it over and done with. Does that not happen anymore then?

SylviaPouncer · 05/03/2015 19:47

My printer didn't work is the new my dog ate it.

CointreauVersial · 05/03/2015 19:48

Blimey, if I got this worked up about all my little darlings' detentions I'd never get anything else done.

If he thinks it was unfairly awarded (and it doesn't sound like it was - it's the age-old problem of leaving things to the last minute) it's up to him to resolve. Not your problem. He is old enough to take responsibility. It's a life lesson.

ThereIsACarInTheKitchen · 05/03/2015 19:50

My printer didn't work is the new my dog ate it.

Grin
LegsOfSteel · 05/03/2015 19:51

What do kids do in detention these days?

WayfaringStranger · 05/03/2015 20:03

Your reaction over this is disproportionate to the punishment, it's one detention! Your son was BU and YABU also. Your son has a plethora of excuses and none of them his fault apparently, amazing that!

scousadelic · 05/03/2015 20:06

Leave him to it. Whether he deserves it or not it will be a learning experience to plan ahead to avoid things that can go wrong.

If he stays in education he has years ahead of deadlines for A levels, college, university, etc so this will be good and make him start thinking about his planning

Tell him it's just bad luck and he needs to get on with it

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 05/03/2015 20:07

Or, yet again, is the OP actually the student in question, pretending to be his Mum?

smokepole · 05/03/2015 20:08

I have not heard such a strong defence about unjust punishment , since the extradition of 'Gary Mckinnon' ?. Op for gods sake its a 1 hour detention, he is not fighting a possible 15 year jail sentence. Maybe he should just take the detention on his shoulders 'laugh' do it and forget about it. He could laugh about it in future years with his friends about 'mean' teachers....

Viviennemary · 05/03/2015 20:11

Teachers get fed up with the endless list of excuses. The cat was ill, the dog was sick and so on. He could have gone to a neighbours or friends house and got it printed surely. Or to the school library. You could have sent in a note to the school. But none of these things were done till the last minute. The last minute is too late.

Sistedtwister · 05/03/2015 20:12

You know if I had detention for something like this my mum would have grounded me for a couple of day to make sure I'd caught up with my homework.

Not made excuse after excuse for me and believed my BS.

YABU you need to back the school up and ensure your son learns a valuable lesson. This wouldn't be acceptable in work.I once had to travel 200 miles to a different office to print off training material needed the next day because the printer server had gone down in my office.

Charlie97 · 05/03/2015 20:14

I didn't call your son a devious thing, I said teenagers can be devious things. You clearly think the world and its wife is against you.

You are massively over sensitive!

Don't call homework stupid homework, it's disrespectful and rude to the teacher setting it.

Get a grip and sort your ridiculous pettiness out, he had a justifiable detention, so get over it.

DixieNormas · 05/03/2015 20:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FriendlyLadybird · 05/03/2015 20:20

One of the first rules of journalism is that you file your copy by the deadline, or it doesn't get published. Doesn't matter if you've written it and it's on a flash drive or your laptop-which-is-at-home. If it's not in the editor's fist in the required format by the deadline, you've lost your chance.

Anyway, it's only a detention.

DoctorDonnaNoble · 05/03/2015 20:22

Why didn't you write a note for him to the teacher explaining about the printer, and saying he'd get it in as soon as possible.

IreneA78 · 05/03/2015 20:23

I do feel some sympathy that he couldn't find a functioning printer.At my Dcs school for some reason cannot be handed in on time, then the onus is on the student to find the teacher im person and aplogise and explain the situation.Your DC didn't do this, he sent a message and a memeory stick with a third party.
That is bad manners!

DoctorDonnaNoble · 05/03/2015 20:24

Why didn't you write a note for him to the teacher explaining about the printer, and saying he'd get it in as soon as possible.

chilephilly · 05/03/2015 20:25

I'm a teacher.
I have to mark a gazillion books a week. I have to be organised.

If a student can't manage to give me a homework after several reminders and second and third chances, they get a detention.
I would hope the parents would support me. I would fully expect the kid to lie through their teeth to the parents.
Sorry, YABU.

mayfridaycomequickly · 05/03/2015 20:43

Stop babying him - you are teaching him that he needn't do as he is told as long as he can think of a half decent excuse.

Today a 17 year old came to my FE class without a pen again because 'my mam didn't give me onethis mmorning'

I Sent himto get / buy one and his mother rang to complain. Apparently I should have given him one. No explaining to the mother that I teach dozens ofstudents a day and can't supply them all with pens registered.

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