Imagine finding out that your child got detention. Your reaction might depend on the reason for the detention.

In this story, one high school student gets detention because he was late for school. Instead of being upset at their teen, the parents are upset at the school. After all, they’re the ones driving their teen to school, so if he’s late, it’s their fault, not his.

They try to convince the school that the detention isn’t reasonable, but when that doesn’t work, they have another idea.

Keep reading for all the details.

My Dad Served My Detention

When I was a freshman in high school I went to a school that was 30+ mins drive away.

They had a policy that three tardies (with a good excuse or not) across a semester would automatically assign an after school detention.

I was a really really good kid; never got in trouble, ever; always really nice and friendly to everybody; worked really hard at everything I did from sports to studies (even if I wasn’t the best at either I tried super hard and all my teachers knew that and all had good rapport with me).

OP’s parents didn’t think he deserved detention.

My parents declined to sign the detention notice and explained to administration how I had 0 control over when they left, and especially no control of road/traffic conditions even after us leaving extra early to have a time cushion (I was only late by a couple mins on the rare time I was even late), but administration declined to remove the detention assignment.

I asked my parents to just let it go and let me serve the stupid detention just to be done with it, or just decline and leave it at that.

But they had other plans….

Let’s see how OP’s dad handled the situation.

The next day my little professor-y looking social worker counselor dad with the big glasses, briefcase, worn down notepad, and his prized 20-year-old Mont Blanc pen signed himself into the school to serve detention the next afternoon—much to the embarrassment and discomfort of the administrators.

They had a hard time holding eye contact with him and were visibly uncomfortable.

They found an empty room to put him and checked in on him once or twice-even offered to let him leave early.

Tut he declined so he would serve the full amount of detention they assigned and wrote sentences for an hour until detention was over.

OP appreciates what his dad did more now than he did at the time.

To my recollection, after that there seemed to be a differentiation between excused and unexcused tardies (idk if for the whole school, but for us anyway—it was never an issue for me after that. But like I said it was rare anyway to even be a couple mins late).

At the time I was so embarrassed, but looking back now it’s kind of funny, and I appreciate the point he was making in not letting me get punished for something I didn’t do wrong and had no control over.

It really is ridiculous to give a child detention for being late when the parents are the ones driving them to school. OP’s dad definitely made his point!

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

Exactly!

It really is ridiculous.

Sometimes it is concerning how bright the people teaching our kids really are.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about siblings who don’t think they should have to give up their own sports’ seasons to help with their younger siblings.

He sure did!

I love how his dad handled this situation. When he couldn’t get the school to see his side, he did the only thing he could think of that made sense. Since he was the one who was driving the car, he was the one who was responsible that his son was late for school, so he was the one who deserved to serve the detention.

Awkward situations can sometimes be enough to make people regret their decisions.