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.

Seems very harsh. I used to be a school governor and the head waived detentions when pupils were late due to major issues with public transport.

@TartanBarmy I have assumed you've never met anyone with a physical disability.
It's not that easy to "just walk".
I live in London.
My daughter's school is 6 miles from home. She has a bone condition..She literally couldn't walk 6 miles.

Email them your objections.
It would annoy me. My son was in London for the weekend and said the strikes were a complete dose.

Could you email into school to explain?

Anyone who thinks this is fair is insane.

I think it is incredibly unfair. I witnessed a group of schoolgirls running past me yesterday with one shouting them that they had three minutes to get to school. They were obviously stressed and I felt really sorry for them. Tube strike days are awful. I remember it once taking me 1.5 hours to walk across London (on top of a walk to a bus stop, 30 min bus ride and an overground train). I had left the house 1.5 hours earlier than usual but was still late.

@TartanBarmy medical appointments (including surgery) get cancelled all the time for many reasons.
Strikes are one of the reasons.
It does happen.

There is no mention of the OP’s DC having a physical disability!

The OP drip fed it into her second or third post.

And TBH would probably have had much different responses if she had said so in her OP.

The strike has doubled the school journey time if he goes in by bus.
So tomorrow he's going to school by cab not leaving at 7am to catch the bus.

Err...she said he does have issues with his legs.

My Dd had an appointment at the GP’s first one on Friday morning.
He was 40 minutes late but didn’t inform any of the office staff where he was, they were quite embarrassed as they didn’t know when he would be in.
So if it’s fine for NHS staff surely it’s ok for schoolchildren?

I’m a teacher (secondary school) and I’m quite strict about punctuality, but there’s no way I’d give a child a detention when they’d been affected by the tube strike. Because I’m not a psychopath.

Some of the responses on here are bonkers!

OP, I would email the school, politely, to express your concerns.

Well if he can get to school on time every other day, he can get up earlier and get in on time allowing for the tube strike.

Like I said. I HATE lateness. And it sounds like the school does too!

I live in central London. My kids got to school on time. Me and DP got to work on time (admittedly I do wfh 😂)

Use this as a lesson. “Sorry DS, things like this happen sometimes, you and I know it’s not fair and I know it’s stressful for you but life does that occasionally.”

Did you know in advance that there was going to be strikes? If so then you should have left earlier and been more prepared instead of blaming the school.

Presumably the one who stays overnight just abandons their children for the night and leaves them home alone?

Or possibly has no childcare commitments or is lucky enough to have other people to step in. Not everyone does, so not an reason to say 'everyone could be in on time if they try hard enough'.

I allowed 50% extra time yesterday and was still a few minutes late. As I am almost always on time my manager - like most reasonable people in the world of work - was understanding. Several other colleagues were late as well.

We were all on time this morning because we learnt from the situation - without having to be punished - and left earlier today (and then I was half an hour early! Which more than made up for yesterday's 10.minures).

That’s really shitty and I don’t believe that anyone here that says it is ok wouldn’t be cross if it was their dc.

It’s all very well people saying they should have left earlier but it can still be hard to judge how early you need to leave and there’s also got to be a limit! Seems common sense to me for the school not to issue penalties when they know there is a tube strike.

I would expect the school to send out an email saying they expect best efforts, but that they understand how difficult it is on tube strike days. And to have a record of where children live, so they should be able to check if they are 5 minutes walk away and taking the piss, or a distance that requires tubes or buses.

Even the pavements are hard to navigate, so many people, many of them riding bikes…

But how?
He can't walk (too far, leg issues).
If the bus is packed and the driver isn't letting anyone else on - then he can't get on. Not his fault.
If train stations get too busy staff sometimes stop letting more people into the station/on the platform for safety reasons. So if he can't get into the station - he can't get into the station. Not his fault.
Taxi - taxis are expensive and the OP might not be able to afford one. Not his fault.
He could leave home at 5am and these issues could still apply.

Could he cycle?

That’s unreasonable in my opinion. A transport strike is not the child’s fault.

With a painful knee?
Also a lot of London kids don't have bikes.