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.

Ridiculous. I hope you complain. Honestly when schools behave like this it undermines the parent-school relationship and makes it harder to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I have lived in London all my life. There was no quicker route, short of a magic broomstick. This was due to traffic and road closures, causing complete gridlock. It's not user error, it's a fault with the system.

I have asked the school about reasonable adjustments. Thankfully the strikes are now ended.

I sure as hell will not be sending my younger children to this school.

I love the username. Your summary was completely apt.

Now I just need to order my magic broomstick ready for the next strike!

Where will you be sending them if this was your only option and you don’t get in to the school you tried for your eldest?

School don’t grow on trees!

My point was

12 year old girl
Neuro Diverse
Suffers from anxiety
Cant walk far due to a painful knee

Id have at least asked my manager if I could come in late or make up the hours so I could accompany my young daughter across London on a strike day.

Did you at least ask?

And also as a very seasoned Londoner, what I meant by alternative route, and you’ll know this if you’re a Londoner….

say you need to get bus 238 from x stop to y stop due to the strike

however 238 is rammed

so back up option because the next 238 is likely to be rammed given the crowds surrounding the bus stop…. Walk 12 mins to a different route stop and get the 124 which will drop you 5 mins further away from school but is a less rammed route

and as a fellow Londoner.., you’ll know that often is the case

I Had a car and live 4 miles from the school. I left and hour earlier and was late every single day this week.

4 miles in a car across London on a strike day? I’m surprised you got into work at all!

So everyone else, staff and other pupils got themselves there in time but your child didn't. Strikes are pre planned and notice is given

What has happened to reading comprehension? No, everyone else did not get in on time. Children got detentions.

And the same problem is in effect on all the buses… It’s as if you think the tube strike effect was only in one part of the city.

This is what I used to do when I had a boss who insisted that everybody come into the office on strike days. I would drive to the start of the bus route and, as you haven’t mentioned driving as an option I’m guessing that isn’t for you, But certainly getting a bus in the opposite direction is one way of beating the ridiculous queues.

I really feel for your child, and for any child who is given a detention for something like this when the circumstances are exceptional. I don’t think this is preparing them for the real world as most employers are not this inflexible. I hope they are not too upset now it is the weekend and the strikes are over. For now anyway.

How do you know that? Did you read it in your magic ball?

Not necessarily - some routes are not as busy as others so on a strike day those routes will be busier, of course, but still not as bad.

Not saying this is true of the OP, but Londoners can often stick to their own little world and not veer off that. If you’re not a seasoned commuter always having to swap journeys around because of this, that and the other, you may not realise that while most of the direct buses go from stop A on the main road, walk in a different direction to stop B which is more backstreet and less direct and it could be a lot better. If you use the tube, you may not even realise there’s a mainline station not that far away.

Not transport but I recently went for a drink in my area with the adult daughter of a friend who’s studying there. We were talking pubs and she didn’t know my local, in fact she clearly had never been to the area where it is which is less than a 10 minute walk from where she lived. She simply never went in that direction.

Sweet Jesus
Are you honestly saying that the possibility that different bus routes had differing levels of business is totally out of the question.

Computer sayes no

Of course but @FullLondonEye os absolutely determined to see otherwise so brace yourself!

When my DD was at school in London and she had to take train / tube, if they produced evidence that trains were late / cx / delayed ie a pic of the dep board then they weren’t given a detention

Because ive been a teacher. If that didn't happen they wouldn't be giving detention. It's not rocket science , do you think they have the capacity to give the whole school a collective detention
Come on !
Busses were running , others made alternative arrangements. This is why discipline is so poor in schools. Back up the school, your child was late so gets a detention for his poor planning

You know what they say about assumptions. OP’s child wasn’t the only one late. Not sure about staff at that particular school but I know some staff at DD’s school were late because of the strike and that’s in a different county! Mass detentions also happen, to the point they have to be taken outside due to the number of children. Get off your soap box and use some critical thinking. Even without strikes, you’ll never have just one child (and no one else , including staff) being late on one particular day. Come on!

You have “been” a teacher, therefore you “know” that the schools is right, everyone else arrived on time and any penalty is justified.

And yet you failed to learn how to use: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5407545-given-detention-for-lateness-on-tube-strike-day?postsby=Longingdreamer

Or how to read an OP’s posts or how to avoid jumping to conclusions based on incomplete data and false assumptions.

I had a paper round once, obviously this makes me an expert on all aspects of the modern media industry.

Concerning you weee a teacher and yet you failed to actually read anything beyond… well page 1

That's overly harsh. I'd talk to the school

If we accept the idea that school is preparation for work (which I don't actually because they are children and work is too diverse to be captured by school, see some schools insistence that blazers are preparing for work - where are all these blazer clad jobs?!) then I've been late to work for reasons beyond my control (weather, break down, transport issues, puking in pregnancy) and I don't get punished. Workplaces take the circumstances into account. I think this is unfair and petty actually, and it's not a lesson it's just an example of inflexibility

Also, the 'whole school' wasn't doing the journey from OP's house to the school.

Others would be within walking distance, others would be on a route less affected (DD's buses ended up getting there within her usual 10 minutes of contingency time). Some might be able to cycle, some live on routes completely unaffected - e.g. using an overground train route.

There's a worrying lack.of critical thinking in saying that because some people got there on time, EVERYONE could have got there on time. You are not comparing like for like, so you can't put the different outcomes down to making an effort/ not making an effort.

I left early and was late, DD left at her usual time and was on time. We had the same starting point, we both used buses, but had different end points and therefore different routes. Those routes were not affected in the same way.

It isn't rocket science...

I don't think you could have come up with a more ridiculous suggestion if you'd tried!

In effect, you are saying that OP's boss should have been tolerant of her being 3 hours late, but a school can't be tolerant of a pupil being 5 minutes late! Plus, who would have looked after and got her younger children to school. And OP would just have just been taking up a space on an already overcrowded bus. If you gross that up with all the other parents in a similar position across London, that would have things even more intolerable.

And it wouldn't have helped, they must have calculated a sensible time to leave, so the DD would still have been late! They weren't actually that far out - being only 5 minutes late amongst all that chaos was really pretty good going!