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 are obviously younger than me

There is no way that these 'bike lanes' make it safe to cycle in London - vans park in them, buses have stops in them, crazy lime bikers left, right and centre, not to mention drivers taking no notice of them. You have to have your wits about you. Absolutely not safe on most routes for young teenagers who are still developing spacial awareness, even on a regular rush hour, let alone this week which has been the worst I've seen in decades
Even if you do get through all that and make it to school in one piece, many schools have a no cycling policy, partly to keep the kids safe, and partly because bike theft is so prevalent and the schools don't want more responsibility.

Yesterday we allowed 2 hours for a journey that we usually allow 20 minutes for. We were still late! A 6 minute tube ride became a bus ride (normally 15 mins, 25 mins in rush hour, became 50 minutes), then a short train ride with trains going every 15 minutes - but every other train was cancelled, so that made trains every 30 minutes. There were so many people that the station supervisors were having to stop people from going to the platform.
Londoners just accept that people do their best on strike days, sometimes you can be lucky and find a sneaky route, and sometimes you're fucked and you just have to be patient and wait it out.
My DS was quite stressed about the new journey yesterday. I didn't join him on the train. He'd been told no late marks during the strike, so at least he didn't have that to worry about.

Your feelings about lateness are a you problem. Maybe get some counseling to learn to deal with the reality of everyday life?

I work in education in London and to get to work at 8am I had to leave home at 6am - my one hour journey took double the time.

The school I work for has reasonable expectations but doesn’t expect students to leave home insanely early.

Thank you. I cycle as an adult in London and I feel it is a high risk sport. A bit like bungee jumping! If we lived somewhere like Amsterdam with good cycling infrastructure it would be different.

No way would I feel safe allowing a teenager to do this.

Yup. I would do this. Very petty on behalf of the school, don’t agree with it at all.

This is madness. My DS left an hour early today, he was still a few minutes late, there's no help for it. I think non-Londoners perhaps don't appreciate the scale of the increase in traffic. I've told him we'll walk it tomorrow, it's 35 minutes walk. He can't carry his bag all the way as it's 12kg so I'll have to walk with him. Luckily I can work from home.

It's chaos.

After covid our DS y8 at the time got a detention for being late when the school bus was cancelled without any warning (no driver available). The kids had let the public bus, that goes to same place, go past because they were waiting for the school bus. I argued there was no way that he was doing a detention as def wasn't their fault. They removed detention for about 54 kids.

Today I walked home from Victoria and it took me an hour and ten mins. Yesterday the same journey by bus took two hours and it was horrendous. If your dc can’t walk then they probably need to leave much earlier.

Mid 80s/early 90s were my secondary school days 😁

Comparing surgeon is a bit too much. Child came on a public transport with their mum, who may not have resources of a surgeon.

Giving detention to a dependant child for something not in their control is mean.

I think if you’ve never navigated London in a full tube strike you cannot imagine how paralysed the city becomes. Utter gridlock.

I would mention your child’s leg because she could not have walked. All you can do on a tube strike is take a punt. Frankly, three hours can’t make it work sometimes, much of it is just luck. And unlike the staff you cannot turn up an hour early either. It’s a ridiculous detention.

If it is the school I think it is, it will make precisely zero difference. They have a "no excuses" ethos. That's just how they choose to operate in the lower years. Their approach, although not for everyone, is very successful.

God I'm glad you didn't make him bike in! The roads in central are a death trap anyway, let alone with the traffic of the last few days.

I'd be cross with the school too, it's not fair!

Aah.. this is a good example of where SPAG makes a difference! The comment reads as if it was about teachers plural , not specifically the teacher who gave the detention.

I was in London yesterday. I watched buses sailing past bus stops full of people waiting, because they were already packed. Later on the afternoon I I watched some children in school uniform (I'm guessing about 11 years old) begging to be allowed on.

It's absolutely clear that many people on this thread have no idea how many people rely on public transport in London, how many thousands of people are on the tube at any one point in time, and how that would translate to how many people would want to be taking a bus instead.

I rolled my eyes at the first person to say ' they should have set off earlier' but then it just got worse. Clueless.

I’m glad I live Up North!

Posters should have to declare whether they have attempted to travel during these tube strikes before they comment....

Personally I'd be telling school he did his best, made it in, and you won't be supporting the detention. And that's coming from a person who generally backs the school up on everything no matter how illogical. But this one is very unfair.

Presumably she gets to school on time every other day because she gets the Tube! Which isn't an option.

I hate lateness too, I'm almost phobic about being late myself, meaning I'm usually ridiculously early to everything. I'm also very supportive of school discipline so long as it's reasonable. However, even I think that detention for this is ridiculous and I'd be querying it.

@saraclara At least nobody has said “They should of got off earlier”!!😀

And again, so glad I live in Scotland. No detentions in my children’s school, ever.

Tbh I'd imagine half the school were late. But it was well known there was a strike and a consequent traffic gridlock.

Just wake up earlier tomorrow. I know it sucks but what can you do?

We needed to go to A&E but the roads were so blocked we had to wait to go there at 10pm, not realising there are hardly any actual doctors or services available during the night. Nobody comes on until 9am. By which time we'd be trapped in traffic again so we left at 6.

I think they should at least stagger the strikes do it's only one a week, not a whole week in one go.

everyone saying that this is reasonable as it’s preparation for adult life - i work in a professional role and was REALLY late a few months ago for a similar reason, i kept my work informed and explained the situation (which they were aware of as it was highly publicised in the area) and they allowed me to work the time back on another occasion which was completely reasonable rather than punishing me for something that’s obviously not within my control, even by leaving early. i think they’re being really harsh on your poor child, just be there for her and explain sometimes schools and authorities get things wrong or treat people unfairly and it doesn’t necessarily mean she has done something wrong.

This is what makes most parents loath rigid “rules” - like another poster said, I wouldn’t be supporting this detention and my child would not be attending it.

This is why schools get bad reputation which causes child and parents to have resentment of idiotic decisions.

So were they early or late?