Given detention for lateness on tube strike day

[Longingdreamer]

My child was given a detention today, despite there being a tube strike in London, which has caused travel chaos. They early but were apparently still late: roads are almost at a standstill it seems.

They get very upset by detentions, due to underlying neuro diversity.

Aibu to think that the school shouldn't give these on a strike day for minor lateness?

They usually give them, even if a child is only 1 minute late, but it seems wicked when it is out of their control.

You need to research this more fully- for all you know lots of children may have travelled from further afield and still been on time. Tube strikes are often used as excuses and the teacher in question may feel this was the case- you need to look into it closer. It seems petty but there are other aspects to this which need looking at.

If it's like my kids' old school, they would give you a detention for this. I couldn't believe the amount of kids in detention every day, easily 100 kids come out at the later time for end of detention. I've heard peoples' plan Bs fell through, with buses being overcrowded and kids having to walk, so you'd think for one day they could allow extra time.

London was absolute CHAOS. My son is due to travel there on Thursday for work & he’s prepared for a very difficult time.

I know a surgeon who has just stayed in town rather than have her ops cancelled!

You presumably realise that's not necessarily an option for an 11 year old child? 🙄Stupid post. And yes, the OP had mentioned disability but you were too busy gearing up to tell us all how superior you are to bother reading it properly.

These sorts of draconian and nonsensical rules do absolutely nothing to foster respect for authority nor do they encourage anyone to follow them, quite the opposite. Kids are not usually completely stupid, they can recognise when there has been a serious failure of common sense and cases like this will cause them to see the school and its rules as ridiculous. Bit of an own goal there. We all know the importance of discipline, punctuality etc. and I don't believe a single one of us learned that from receiving a detention in this particular situation.

the last few days in London have been exceptionally traumatic with the lack of tubes, no increases in the buses, roads closed due to fires and burst water mains.

it was quicker to walk, and I used my husbands moped which hardly sees the light of day normally, I enjoyed myself, although it was stressful, I know the bike is moted, taxed and insured - I paid it - but I ride very little these days - but that is going to change!

I know things have moved on, but we were branded nutters and freaks if we weren’t “the norm”.

we have to learn how to control our feelings, yes it’s cruel you get a detention for being late, in the world of work you can lose a shift, lose a days pay, and be disciplined for it too, and that really hurts too.

we are all different, we all think differently, but rules are in place, and sometimes, we have to swallow stuff that we think is totally unfair, because that’s what life can be like at times.

good luck

I would quote their failure to.make reasonable adjustments for a disabled child, causing an anxiety attack/autistic meltdown as the reason for absence.

Have you spoken to the Sendco?

Had you not heard that there would be a strike?

They are being silly. And if your child has a medical condition, which means it wouldn’t be reasonable for them to walk, you need to remind the school about disability accommodations.
Email the head, stating you believe there has been an error in giving DC a detention for being late when they have a medical condition meaning they couldn’t use an alternative route (walk). State you are looking for clarification on this as you are sure your DC has misunderstood and the school wouldn’t punish a child with a medical disability for something they couldn’t control.

Id put money on them changing their mind. Especially when having to put it in writing.

Id be tempted not to send them in for the week. If she’s going to be punished for something she can’t control, why put her through that?

The op has a nd child. If any of you actually have neuro diverse kids. You know any change effects them. Anything. Even if you have prepared them for it. Along with adults being stressed whilst travelling and not being kind this is a receipe for a nd child to have a meltdown.

Knowing there was to be a strike makes little difference. The ops child left a lot earlier than usual & was still (a few minutes) late.

YABU. The tube strike was announced well in advance, and presumably, many, many other people (teachers and children) made the effort to get there in time. Get up earlier next time.

And your reaction sends strong hints you are a bad parent, excusing your child for something that’s patently their (your) fault is no way to prepare them for adulthood. You and they should accept the punishment and suck it up.

No Givedog, many, many students, teachers & workers despite their best efforts, were late.

Wow, you sound like a vile person, who clearly hasn't read the thread.

Thank you. I am not sure if people are being obtuse, or genuinely have no knowledge whatsoever of neurodiversity.

I have emailed the school asking for reasonable adjustments. It is utterly ridiculous that she has missed a whole day of school, rather than be a few minutes late, due to their inflexibility.

I don't know what will happen tomorrow. I can't wait for this strike to be over.

I have emailed to ask the Senco for reasonable adjustments. Sadly, I don't have a lot of hope in receiving a constructive response.

How many hours earlier would you consider good enough try?

The child physically can't walk to school.
Let's say it would take 15 minutes by tube, but the tube is closed.
Let's say it would take 30 minutes by bus on a normal day.
Let's say that the traffic will get stuck, so the bus can take an hour.

This far it is somehow predictable.
But how would you estimate whether the first bus will actually open the doors for you, or the second one or the third one?

This punishment has negative learning value (the child did set up earlier and had nearly made it).
The "preparing for adulthood" is a nonsense - many adults would work from home, or agree different starting hours, so they don't add up to the congestion. Good preparation for the adulthood would be to mark the first hour or two optional, so the children wouldn't have to join the big trafic and would let the people who really have to get somewhere get there first.

Mum of 2 nd kids . One has no time concept the other thrives off routine and has had 0 support from senior school. He's at college now just passed his English gcse and doing a level 3 btec. It will get better lovely. Schools are awfulnfor sen kids.

I think it's completely ridiculous to give detentions for lateness in strike week.

And to the pp on page one, I imagine surgeons either stayed overnight or cancelled operations. Or just started late. Or lived somewhere where they didn't need to use the Tube.

I would simply tell the school that my dd wasn't doing it (assuming it's after school). But I assume its an academy with no accountability and therefore nowhere to escalate such as a local authority.

I have no idea what the school thinks it's achieving with this sort of thing. If they want their pupils to arrive on time, they could try asking their union to talk to the RMT.

Not vile but a sanctimonious keyboard warrior who hasn't used their brain cells. Probably also a SAHM who doesn't have to work for a living and leaves her DH to do the commuting on a strike day.

And there it is blane the parent for a schools failings. God forbid a school actually have some sort of contingency plan to enable disabled children cope with such a massive change to their daily life. Employers have people working at home. Why the feck arnt schools sorting this. They did it during covid. Why not now.
Come back when you have nd kids to manage and keep alive then we may take you seriously. Jesus if you wanted to give trolling lessons you'd make a packet.

I am sure there were. And do you know why? Can you think just for a moment why some children might arrive on time?

Because they didn't need to use the Tube!

I live way outside London but I was on time into work on Monday morning. Because I don't need to use the Tube, I can walk from my London arrival point.

And preparing for adulthood.
Most jobs have flexible/ flexible working / hybrid or full working from home.

School doesn't prepare you for adult hood. It's there to institutionalise you and make sure they are conditioned to think like you. Thankfully the majority of parents are seeing through this smokescreen and speaking up

If it's an academy I think you're a bit stuffed though. If it's LA-run you can complain to the LA.

It's always an academy when you have ludicrous rules like this. Same with uniform rules.

Very unfair. And I don't agree on all this 'it's good practice for work'. Half of my office worked from home today to avoid the strike all together. Several team members were late. No one batted an eyelid.

Likewise I didn't get penalised because I forgot my access pass.

These things happen!

We all knew about the tube strike, but I don’t think anyone was quite anticipating how awful the roads were going to be! Unless you’re commuting around London neighbourhoods (not walking distance) then you can’t appreciate how surprisingly difficult it has been. I would not punish a child for being five minutes late for school this week, that’s just stupid. Besides, being five mins late clearly means she left earlier than usual considering how long all journeys are taking.

I mentioned upthread how a friend spent 90 mins on the bus yesterday to do a journey that’s usually half an hour.

I was travelling on buses and walking for three hours total today (taking children to and from school on the bus and to a tutor on the bus elsewhere) - it would normally be about half that.

Truly, we should give the tube drivers what they want - we really need the tube!