Early Bird Dumbassery

Yesterday in Early bird at my high school, Bishop Heelan, Grace came in about a good ten minutes late. She came in with a late pass that was marked "Unexcused". She did have a perfectly fine excuse: Her tire blew out. There wasn't even a question of believability on this one, her mom had called in and explained the situation. However, the dumbass administration at our fair school has as one of it's policies to only allow one car excuse per year. Because otherwise, "People would just use that excuse all the time." To make my position clear on this issue, I feel that this is absolutely atrocious. As long as the parent endorses their kid's absense from school, any abscence should be allowed. There isn't a moral obligation to go to school, and it's ok to be late. School is just a place where learning people are privaleged to learn. If people choose to not take advantage of it, then no one is harmed but them, so it makes no sense to punish them if the parents endorse it. Kids are the responsibility of the parent, and if the parent feels that it is ok for their kid to miss ten minutes of school because their tire blew out, then I'ld say no disciplinary action is needed.

Beleive it or not, that wasn't why I am writing now. That dumbassery is a big deal, and it needs to be erradicated, but it didn't surprise me at all. My school administration is an incompetant pile, and I have been dealing with that for the past 3.5 years. What surprised me was what happened next. Lauren, a girl who is habitually late, and always excused, walked in ten minutes after Grace did with another excused pass. Her excuse, one of her most frequently used, was that "She was feeeling sick when she got up that morning". The class was in an uproar, and rightfully so. Grace had been wronged. Grace deserved an excused pass. However, the class began attacking Lauren. They began exclaiming how it was wildly unfair that Lauren got off so frequently while others didn't get off when they had legitemate excuses. I immediatly spoke up on Lauren's part. She has nothing to do with Grace not getting off, Ms. Joyce, the school secretary who makes the decisions was completely to blame for that. Plus, it doesn't make sense to want to bring Lauren down to bring justice to Grace. It's not like Ms. Joyce can only give out a certain number of excused passes per day, there are an infinite number of excused passes. Despite this, the class actually felt that something needed to be done about Lauren. They wanted to rob Lauren of the good she was receiving to somehow bring justice to Grace. They barraged the teacher so much with their outcries that he agreed that he would talk to them about Grace... and Lauren! In the end, the administration decided that Grace was still counted as late, but now Lauren, no matter what her excuse, will forever be counted as unexcused, because my dumbass classmates don't understand that someone can be undeservedly priveleged without hurting someone who isn't rightfully priveleged. It's not a zero sum game.