Being late to school is a rite of passage. It happens to everyone at some point, both students and teachers alike – and usually, the excuses are pretty mundane. Occasionally, however, something unbelievable can happen, and then you have a whole other battle: to even get people to believe you’re not lying. These are the craziest excuses for lateness to class that turned out to be true, as told by the people of Reddit.



1. An explosive start

I was one of about 20 kids who were late to school. We showed up at the school office as a group and when questioned why we were late, we said: “The school bus blew up”. They questioned, “So the engine blew up.” The kids: “No, the whole bus, in flames. It blew up.” There was much conference between the teachers, all of them thinking we embellished the story…

Next thing you know, one of the admin staff has the news website open, very obvious image of an entire bus on fire with a bunch of kids in our school uniform standing in front of it. Our late slip for class read “School bus blew up”.

AusPB90

2. The weight of knowledge

“MTV paid me $100 to fill my backpack with cement and carry it around for the day.” I accepted that excuse. The student later regretted it, as a replacement backpack and college textbooks far exceeded $100. But he got his moment of fame and I didn’t penalize him for his tardy. Gotta live a little.

surgicalasepsis

3. Five car pile-up

I was in a car crash on my way to school. About 5 cars involved because some jerk decided to overtake us since we slowed down coming to a turn. So a trip to the hospital to get checked, and then school three hours late. I had small cuts all over my face from glass flying everywhere and had a really sore shoulder, but my teachers wouldn’t believe me until police showed up because they forgot to get a statement from me.

jogfx

4. Accidental show and tell

My neighbour had a really social goat, and it figured out how to escape its pen in order to come over and hang out. The goat escaped and followed me to the bus stop, and when the bus came, it tried to follow me onto it. I couldn’t actually get on the bus without it being right behind me, so I had to get off, bring it home, and call my dad to bring me to school.

shoppy33

5. Skating by

My best friend and I used to roller skate to school and one day we both forgot to put our shoes in our backpacks. So we skated to the vice-principals office and got to skip the first period to go home for shoes. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way back for breakfast, because we figured we were already excused.

Grizelda_H

6. Picture perfect

Not me, but one of my good friends:She went to the Royal Military College of Canada, where they wear their uniforms and there are often tourists visiting the campus. Apparently, it was completely normal to be waylaid by tourists looking to have their photos taken with students in uniform that all they had to say when they walked in late was “tourists” and the professors would let it slide.

superstartsky

7. Returning with evidence

We had an exam in my class and the teacher got a message from a student saying that he was going to be late because his car had a flat tire. The student was known to party and the teacher didn’t think it could be true, so as a joke the teacher asked him to bring the tire back. He brought the flat tire back in the middle of the exam. Needless to say, the professor didn’t expect that.

Sapang

8. Taking a shortcut

A very quiet, unassuming kid in our class came into German with about five minutes of the class left. We went to a Catholic school and the teachers were all quite strict and intimidating. Classes were usually silent, especially in junior school. When this boy came into class at the end of the lesson that day, the door flew inwards with such force that the teacher gave an audible gasp.

It had been raining heavily outside, his hair was plastered to his forehead. His blazer was dripping and sodden. He had mud caked into his trousers up to his knees, and he was breathing heavily. The teacher exclaimed, ‘Brendan! What happened?’ We all stared up at him in shocked silence. This quiet, unassuming little boy let out a big sigh and just said, ‘I took a shortcut’ and went straight to his seat.

lestat85

9. Playing chicken

When I was student teaching, I was late because there were a bunch of chickens in the middle of the road. They wouldn’t move at all. This is in the middle of a city of 200,000 people. Freaking chickens. I finally get to school and profusely apologize to my mentor teacher and I told her why I was late thinking it sounded ridiculous. She said, “yeah, those chickens are f***ing a**holes, they surrounded my car in the McDonalds parking lot last year. Don’t worry about it.”

Makenshine

10. Blushing pink

“I’m Pink” A fair-skinned student (age 10) went with a friend to the Holi festival at a nearby Hindu temple where she was covered with red powder and dyed bright red from head to toe. Her mother, another teacher at the school, had made her sit for hours in the bathtub to soak it off, but even after another round of early morning shower scrubbing, she arrived at school a pleasant shade of pink.

Yes4Cake

11. What a coincidence

When I was in college, my psych professor told us that the only excuse for being late was a funeral procession. Any other reason, you wouldn’t be allowed to come in. A few weeks into the semester, I was headed from one building to another, which involved crossing the main road. Lo and behold, there was one very long funeral procession going by.

I got a short video of it as proof, then stood on the sidewalk to let it go by. Unfortunately, the procession made me five minutes late to class. I knocked on the door, and the professor came over to start to tell me off. I showed her the video. “Well I’ll be d***ed, c’mon in.”

Jupichan

12. Covered in suds

I was in the shower before school, washing my hair. Shower water suddenly went to a dribble. Thought ‘well, that’s my dad running his morning bath. It will be full in 7 minutes so I’ll just exfoliate.’ Cover my entire body in exfoliator, hair full of shampoo. Every part of my body is covered in some form of soap. Well, 10 minutes pass and now there’s no water.

I wrap a towel around me and decide to investigate. It’s not my dad’s bath running, a water main had burst on my street and cut off all the water. Could not physically go to school in the state I was in, there was absolutely nothing I could use to get anything off of me. I remember calling the school and trying to explain I couldn’t come in because I was covered in soap and shampoo…

Had to wait around for 6 hours all soapy until I could rinse it all off. Very uncomfortable. 10/10 would not recommend. My 4 hour maths lesson I missed would have probably been more enjoyable.

10twinkletoes

13. Lending a hand

Had a student (player our NCAA top-25 football team) be late to a college midterm. As a note, we are in a metropolitan area. Emails me and goes “I fully understand you think this is going to be a lie but I found a guy unconscious in his car. Had to stop and call 911. Be there soon.” This was one where it was so wild I couldn’t fathom it being fake on some level.

I was sitting there proctoring and thinking about how I was going to have to request a police report to verify. But the kicker is the guy made it to class and finished the exam on time. And got an A from what I recall.

dateddative

14. A biking bust-up

In high school, I biked to class. One day I hit a rock and ate absolute s***. I obviously got to class late. Before I could say a word my teacher stopped the class and said: “Thank you for finally joining us, why are you so late?” I raised my heavily bloodied hands and elbows. It must’ve looked bad because she audibly gasped and rushed me to the school nurse apologizing nonstop the entire way.

DatPunk15

15. The circus is in town

I went to a high school in the middle of downtown in a moderately sized city. Seniors were allowed to leave the school during our lunch period. One day my friends and I walked a couple blocks to a Chinese place, only to discover on the way back to the school that the circus was in town and we were stuck on the wrong side of a parade.

Our teacher looked up the parade dates before he would believe us when we came into class late.

kellyev2006



16. An early-morning delivery

I worked at a vet’s office and he asked me to come in early to help him out with a birth. Never having seen one, I jumped at the opportunity. (I wanted to be a veterinarian so badly). Anyway, while there the vet had to take an important phone call so he gave me instructions (no apparent complications so we just had to wait). I ended up catching this baby goat and had to take a nice long shower and change my clothes before school.

Long story short, the school didn’t believe me when I said I delivered a baby goat that morning. They called up my Dad – “Yep, he delivered a baby goat.”

DevilsAdvocate9

17. Oh deer!

To set the scene: Rural elementary school in North Carolina. Springtime. The student was a smart kid. Mom did the best she could, but they lived in an extreme level of poverty. On the day in question, the student came in a solid hour late. He said he had missed the bus because his mom had to beat up a deer with his backpack.

As it turns out, a deer had gotten too close, and mom had to “beat off” the deer with the only thing she had handy…. the backpack. Backpack and deer disappeared, but mother and child were neither in the greatest of health, and they spent the next 45 minutes looking for the backpack before giving up and walking to school.

newphone-newuser

18. The elephant in the room

I was studying a bachelor’s degree in India, at Chandigarh University. I always woke up, had my breakfast and asked for a taxi from my apartment to the university, the road took about 25 minutes, and in the middle of the transfer, there was a part of the road that was just trees and vegetation. One morning I was going to my class at 7 am, and an elephant was blocking the road.

We could not turn around because behind the car, while the driver and I watched in amazement at the elephant, the road was full of peacocks that didn’t move for any reason. After 40 minutes the elephant continued on its way, it went into the trees and I was able to reach my second class.

OMIPAC

19. Money in the road

“There was a penny spill on the highway, so we were stuck in traffic.” A truck crashed on its way to the mint spilling millions of blank pennies, and the highway was closed down while they cleaned it up. When I made a comment on how strange the situation was, another student shrugged and said: “At least it’s not bees this time.”

Delaware is a strange place.

teachmetonight

20. Long hair, don’t care

Not late but absent. I noticed a good amount of kids in my school won’t be present for the first few days of school. When I first started in school, some of my co-workers said: “yeah some of them don’t come because they aren’t allowed by their parents until they get a haircut.” I thought, no way. When I asked one of my own students why he was absent the first few days, he confirmed: “Had to get my haircut.”

wintering6

21. If a tree falls in the forest… do you still have to go to class?

One time a tree fell in front of my bus. As in, fell right in front of it – a few seconds later and it could’ve been bad. Everyone was fine, but the road was completely blocked. It was the only road that way and I had no alternative, so I spent 2 hours walking the rest of the way. They didn’t believe me until they saw the news that the road was blocked.

danatron1

22. A bathroom accident

During college exams, a roommate of mine who was in the same exam, couldn’t make it and I had to tell the professor as I walked in late. My roommate couldn’t make it because when he was getting ready, he slipped, went to grab the toilet seat/bowl, smashed it, and was on his way to get stitches. I had been the first person to hear him yell and had to help him, stop the water, and call for help.

Yes, in front of the two classes dead quiet writing an exam, I said: “Adam won’t be making it in for the exam, he fell in the toilet and is going to the hospital.”

Kalvin_The_Cat

23. Double trouble

My best friend and I got into separate car accidents on the way to school on the same morning. We also had the same 1st-period class, so I showed up and apologized for being like half an hour late and explained that I had gotten into a car accident on the way to school that morning, and my teacher was like “okay whatever.”

But then my best friend showed up to class 5 minutes after I did, explained to the teacher that he had gotten into a car accident on the way to school, and my teacher basically all but called him a liar to his face. I had picture proof of my car accident on hand and my friend didn’t, so the teacher gave him detention LOL.

BlaxicanX

24. Pecked to tears

A girl in my literature class was late to an exam because she was attacked by a goose. The b******s hung around in the parking lot, and when she got out of her car, he came after her pecking. She had to sit in her car for 30 mins. When she finally made it to class her voice was very shaky and you could tell she’d been crying.

urszulad26

25. Supporting a delivery

When I was at secondary school one of my teachers told us a story about a boy who’d left school a few years before. He was absolutely notorious among staff for being late, and he always had a rather feeble but outlandish excuse for it. One morning he came into a lesson late, and when asked for his inevitable excuse he kind of clammed up and asked to speak to the teacher in private.

Turns out he’d actually set off on time for once, but encountered a frightened, heavily pregnant teenage girl hiding in some bushes along his route. She was obviously distressed, and while trying to figure out what was upsetting her, she went into labour. He called an ambulance but ultimately ended up keeping her calm and helping deliver the baby by the time the ambulance actually arrived.

This was ultimately verified by one of the ambulance drivers, who called the school during his break to back him up, and eventually by the girl’s family who wanted to thank him. Apparently, he ended up receiving some kind of award from the local council.

Plantagenesta

26. Not my holiday

It actually got me the whole day off. My carpool was Jewish. Everybody else in the carpool was Jewish and it was a Jewish holiday. I went out to get picked up and sat there and nobody showed up. My mom came out and was like what are you still doing here and I told her nobody had shown up yet. She called the mom who was supposed to pick me up and decided I might as well stay home.

Stoneheart7

27. A streaming misunderstanding

My friend’s brother streams on Twitch a lot, and I guess he is relatively popular because he got swatted, twice. The first time, my friend was at home and his brother was on his way to school. My friend hears the doorbell ring and he went to open it. He said There were about 20 cops/SWAT, some pointing rifles at him. There was a team waiting for his brother as soon as he got off the bus.

They took him back to his house so he didn’t make it to class. The next day when the teacher questioned him as to why he wasn’t in class, he explained what happened but the teacher didn’t believe his story until he showed a video my friend recorded (after the cops realized it was a fake tip) of all the cops outside the house.

nrkjak

28. A narrow escape

I was driving down the highway in the middle of the day, as I went to a different school in the afternoon and drove there during lunch. I look up and see a kerosene truck rolling down the other side of the highway, flipping over and over. I pulled over, grabbed my fire extinguisher (it wasn’t on fire and I don’t know what I thought a little fire extinguisher could do if it was) and a blanket and ran over there.

There were two guys in there truck and one wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. He managed to survive by pushing off the ground every time it came into view through the busted front windshield. I just wrapped my blanket around the driver as he sat on the side of the road. Finally, a cop told me I could go and I just went to school. I was completely numb. No one believed me till they heard about it. It was easily the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.

Qaqueen73

29. Shaving on the job

The best excuse I ever heard came from one of my professors in law school. He showed up 15 minutes late with a box in his hand and said, “I apologize for my tardiness. My wife says that I need to shave my head again, because it’s getting fuzzy. But I’ve been in my office since 4:30 this morning pondering Egyptian gods and goddesses, so I’m just going to shave it while we talk today.”

He proceeded to pull a razor and shaving cream out of the box, then lathered and shaved his head while he grilled us on whatever case we had just read about murder or theft or whatever the hell it was.

Remnant58

30. Classmate alibi

I was driving my father’s ’68 station wagon, approaching a red light. Tapped the brakes and… the drive shaft dropped out of the transmission & dug into the pavement. Pivoted the car 90-degrees and slid sideways to a stop. Totally blocked my lane, the emergency lane, and half of the oncoming traffic lane. Got out and waited for cops to show up.

One of my classmates, not realizing it was me, made it through the jam and got to class about an hour before me (but a little late). I got a ride to school in the back of a cop car. Walked into class, apologized for being late, told the instructor what happened. Classmate stared at me, jaw dropped to the floor, then almost-yelled “Holy f***, that was YOU?!”

Instructor asked if I was okay, needed the day off, etc. Apparently, the classmate had described, in great detail, what had made him late by 15 minutes.

SpreadingRumors

31. Nun-stop chatting

I went to an all-girls catholic high school, but by the time I was there were only a couple nuns left and one especially was getting on in years. And she just wanted company. Which she found by stopping girls on their way to class and chatting with them, she’d sometimes even hold onto their arm for support while talking.

Being catholic school girls, we couldn’t be rude to the nun, so we’d just chat until she let us go and yelled at us for being late to class. Upon arriving to class, all you had to do was say her name and you’d usually get an “Ah” and some nodding because everyone knew. If you’re chosen, you’re chosen.

watson0707

32. Taking a biscuit break

I would always walk to school, but there was a railroad track I had to cross. Every few weeks, the conductor would stop the trains on the tracks and go to the biscuit shop next to the tracks to get breakfast biscuits. I’d have to go into the biscuit shop and get him so he could witness me safely climbing between train cars to get across, which often made me late for school.

KeiSakura

33. The teacher’s pets

I used to drive my sister to school every morning. We lived in a very rural part of north Georgia so there were a lot of farms surrounding our home. One morning we had left and got about 100 yards from our driveway when we went around a curve and saw the entire road filled with cows. There were at least 20 just mooing at us like we were the crazy ones.

I just backed up and turned around and went back home. Our street was a dead end so there was no getting out unless we wanted to trek through the woods. So I called my sister’s school and asked them if they could call one of the teachers to come to the phone. I explained to the office person what was happening and that the cows belonged to this teacher.

So they transfer my call to the teacher/my neighbour and I tell her what’s going on. She apologized and said she would take care of it. About an hour later a young man knocked on our door to tell us they had rounded up all the cows. When my sister got to school they just sent her to class without any problem.

bannedtotheflatlands

34. Making a good impression

Once I had an early class with very unmotivated students. So many of them were late that instead of letting them enter quietly, the new rule was “tell me your excuse and if it’s reasonable I’ll let you in” (never refused someone, it was just to reduce the problem).

So this one time a student arrived like 40min late and pulls me aside and then he said “I’m not gonna lie, I was home ready to leave and then my girlfriend asked me to come by her place after class so I had to shave before leaving.” Me: “To shave?” Him: staring awkwardly below his waist. “Well you know, to keep it clean down there.” I burst out laughing and let him enter.

afrorye4

35. Locked out by a cat

I was told it was an epic excuse. My mom borrowed my car to go buy groceries and while she left the doors open, one of our cats got in. The cat was left in there all night. When I came out to go to school in the morning the caw pawed at the window…. and locked the doors by hitting the lock button. My keys were in there. I had to get the cat to paw at it more to unlock the doors. I was two hours late.

[deleted]

36. Ditching school

I was in middle school I wanted to take a different route to school through a ravine after an ice storm, I slid down the side walked to the other end and was unable to get out, I missed an entire day of school trying to get out. I did everything I could have done, smashed rocks into the hillside to make holes to climb up but nothing seemed to work.

Then I heard talking and yelling so I yelled back. My friends found me and had to drop a rope for me to climb which still took forever. I didn’t get home until 6pm and my parents wrote a letter to the school explaining what happened. I still got a missed school day mark.

Shepherdude

37. No shoes? No class

So my siblings and I went to a school in another county, about an hour commute. I was the youngest and always sat in the backseat. On these drives, I would like to relax and never wear my shoes until it was about time to get out of the car. Well one day, my dumb a** forgot my shoes and didn’t realize it until we were five minutes away.

Well of course we couldn’t turn around, and school policy required that we wear close-toed does, so I couldn’t wear my sister’s flip flops. In the end, my sister had to go to Walmart and buy me some Starter sneakers. We were all fairly late because I was a little s***. Don’t remember if we were excused, but I sure hope they were.

High_kage_

38. A presidential obligation

As a student, I couldn’t turn in an assignment on time since I had to meet the president of the United States. The interaction went something like this: “Ms. teacher, can I have an extension on my homework this week, also I won’t be here Friday.” Teacher: “Only if it’s to meet the queen of England.” Me: “Well, does the POTUS count?” Teacher: “…for real?”

Me: “Yes.” Teacher: “In that case, granted.”

emperorjoel

Credit: Pete Souza

39. A pre-school hero

I was an EA, but a kid came in late and said: “I had to walk because my Grandma couldn’t drive me”. Now I knew this kid lived just around the block, because he was my neighbour, so things didn’t add up when he rolls in 45 minutes late, on a 5-minute walk.

TURNS OUT, his grandma had fallen down the stairs, broke both her wrists, a hip, basically everything in one of her legs, and a nice concussion to boot. This little humble hero went through the first aid steps I had taught the class at the beginning of the year, and then phoned 911 and potentially saved his Grandma’s life.

magnummentula

40. Couldn’t get out of bed

A friend was late to class because his foot got stuck in his mattress. He tried to get up and his foot went through the mattress and got tangled in the springs underneath… Had to call 911 to cut him out as he was bleeding a little and didn’t want to risk cutting an artery by forcibly pulling his foot out. His dad recorded the entire thing which my friend then showed to his teacher.

zatavoidis

41. Still in uniform

I was a uni student and never late to my labs, as I am usually early for everything. I was late to class as I was in a motorcycle accident at work. I was a motorcycle postie and a cat jumped into the front wheel of my bike and I went over the handlebars. I had to wait for a replacement bike to be brought out so my route took an hour longer than usual. The professor only believed me as I was running too late to change out of my postie uniform and just put my lab coat on over the top.

Leather-Armadillo

42. Stuck in school

I used to rollerblade to school and my area was fairly new. One morning, I skated down my driveway only to hit the street and have my wheels sink right in. Turns out, they were paving the street that morning. I was wearing a t-shirt so I landed with my elbows going right into that hot, still fresh asphalt. I still went to school because I didn’t know what else to do.

At school, I had to go to the admin office since I was late. I told them I was late cause I fell into molten asphalt. The VP came out and pulled me into her office to give me s*** about being late. When she asked me what my excuse was, I showed her my arms and she almost had a heart attack. She was like, “why on earth did you even come to school??!”

athaiii

43. Made late by a pooch

One day a friend came into class one hour too late, and the teacher asked why to which he replied: “I got chased by dogs.” He then proceeded to take out his phone and show the whole class how he was sitting on a barn and just a couple of feet under him there were two German Shepards jumping and angrily barking at him. It was very funny.

Berserkir_Of_Casta

44. An exhausting practice

I was a few years into my teaching/ coaching career in Texas football, one of the rookie coaches arrived at practice late, about 6:45 in the am. Turns out, when he got home the evening before, he laid on his bed a second before taking a shower. He slept straight through the night and didn’t wake up until about 6:20. Once he figured out it was the next morning he didn’t bother changing, just came back to work in the same clothes. That first year is exhausting.

Jonathan_Pine

45. Slammed by the post

My excuse for being late was “I was hit by postal mail” I was running late for the school bus which left from a bus stop across the road and opposite my house. From my bedroom window, I could see the school bus approaching so I quickly finished packing my school bag and bolted out the front door. We had a zebra crossing near the bus stop and as I ran across it a post van suddenly came out of nowhere.

I was very lucky in that it was a weird van, a bit like those old milk trucks, open on both sides at the front of the van so the driver could get in and out easily on both sides. So instead of being hit by the van, I started to run through the van, the driver then slammed on the brakes and a heavy bag of mail hit me on the head.

The school bus was still parked at the bus stop, but as I got onto the bus, I explained what happened and he was worried about a concussion. So he called my parents who were still finishing their breakfast inside our house. I was then taken to the hospital for a few hours of observation.

MIB65

46. Smoke and deodorant

I forgot my inhaler once in high school. I had an hour-long bus ride, and some kid the stop after mine was smoking at the bus stop, then doused himself in Axe to hide the smoke smell. My two biggest asthma triggers are fragrance (with Axe being the worst of them) and cigarette smoke. After an hour on the bus, I was in really bad shape.

I collapsed getting off the bus and woke up in the ER – found out later the bus driver had radioed ahead and the school nurse and resource officer scooped me up and drove me, lights and sirens in a police car, to the hospital. I spent the day getting nebulizers in the hospital. They finally let me go just before the last class period was supposed to start, and I had a test with a teacher who’s made it very clear he did not do makeup exams that hour, so I talked my parents into taking me back. I passed the test and found out he totally would have made an exception.

Triknitter

47. Partied too hard

I fell out of a window during my 18th birthday party and cut my arm straight across the main artery. I would have come quite close to being dead were it not for a friend who was studying to be a medic. Anyway, I was out of school for maybe a week and the teacher, knowing I had turned 18, assumed I was just skipping school to have a week of partying and tried to throw me off my course. She did a dramatic u-turn when I came in and showed her the 100+ stitches holding my arm together.

Zulunation101

48. Looking for nothing

So I was once late for civics class because on my walk to school an old lady had asked me where a nearby store was. I didn’t know so I told her and kept going, however, three-quarters of the way to school I found the store. Unfortunately, it had gone out of business. Now I couldn’t let this lady look around the rest of the day for a store that no longer existed so I turned around and went to tell her. Got to class 45 minutes late. Not sure if my teacher actually believed me but after giving me a hard time for a couple of moments she commended my good samaritan act and moved on with class.

steve-o1234

49. An overprotective mother

The absolute BEST excuse I have heard was a student who said they were late to school not because of an elk on the road, but because they were being harassed by one and couldn’t leave their house. Sounded like bull**** to me, but when the parent was contacted they confirmed it and elaborated – it was a female elk with her calf, so if the student/parent had gotten too close they would have been attacked and so decided to stay in the house rather than provoke the elk.

Leiservampir

50. They took the keys!

I had a student whose parents travelled internationally a lot. One day she was late because her mom had flown to Hong Kong with the keys to all the cars they owned. We live in a small community with no taxis. The school secretary drove to the house and picked her up. The student missed school another time because the parents had been on trips and forgot what day of the week it was.

fraksen

51. A project punch-up

I am teaching a college-level class at the high school level. They have to do group projects and they do them with their teams. These 3 girls show up 5 min late, all look flushed as if they had been running. They sat down, opened their notebooks, and immediately started taking notes during the lecture. Mind you these are college-level kids. Well, one kid plagiarized her portion of their project, the other kid called her out and said I would find out, they went to the bathroom and PUNCHED EACH OTHER while the third girl filmed, and then came back to class.

temenlaespada

52. An unusual commute

Had three new entry students (12 years old) arrive over an hour late. These kids had already developed a small reputation for being late. So we were a little suspicious. They told us the person driving the bus was being ‘weird’. Missing turn-offs, going the wrong way, doing U-turns in the middle of busy streets. So the kids got off the bus and caught public transport instead.

The story sounded very convincing and the details well thought out. So we followed this up. Turns out the bus driver was completely hammered drunk and had no idea what they were doing. The bus company confirmed this and told us that the driver was promptly fired.

PlontokHabberdasher

53. Milk powder problems

Excuse: My Mom had too much milk. Context: I was teaching English in Shenzhen China, which directly borders Hong Kong. Many of my students either lived in Hong Kong, or went to their regular schools there, so they go through border control on a near-daily basis. At said border, there is a very strict limit on the amount of baby milk powder that can be brought into the mainland. This kid’s mom had tried to go over the limit, and had been delayed at customs. While this may sound strange to most people, in that area it’s a perfectly valid excuse for being late to class.

Bizmatech

54. Every rose has its thorns

Attacked by a rose bush. Winter morning walk to school. Wasn’t far but the entire town slopes down towards the street the school is on. I usually took a certain shortcut through a house on the corner and today was extra icy. It was one of those winter rainstorms that just covers everything in ice. I hit the path through this house and as soon as I stepped onto it I just start sliding down a sloping cement path straight towards the bunch of rose bushes.

Collision ahead, I’m under the bushes and my backpack’s tangled up. I climbed out, went home to wipe off the cuts then went in late. The cuts all over my face were excuse enough for the office.

Edittilyoudie

55. Rocking out too long

My buddy was sitting in his car and jamming out, as usual, while waiting for school. We had Bio together and he came in ten minutes late and his excuse was he was jamming out to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. All the teacher said was “I would have done the same thing now sit down and start your test.” It was our Final exam. Dude is a f****ng legend and his story, as far as I know, is still being told at that school.

CAMO_HERO

56. One step forward, one fall down

I was late because I fell through my porch on the way to my car. It was an old wooden porch and the house didn’t have a gutter. I’d been telling my landlady for over a month that it was dangerously rotten. I took one step out of my front door and my foot went through one of the planks up to my thigh. I got a nice bloody scrape all down my leg and a pretty bruised kneecap.

I was carrying my MacBook, which ended up on the lawn, and a hot cup of coffee which spilt all over me and gave me a couple of minor burns. My landlady saw all this happen from her kitchen window and I had a brand new front porch by the time I got home that day.

saltybartender

57. Waiting for gators

I had a parent message me saying that her kid would be late because there was an alligator under their van. About an hour later she sent me a picture of her van with an alligator just chilling while they wait for the alligator wranglers to come around. We lived in Florida, so I honestly believed her before she sent me the picture without a second guess. Just a normal day.

pleasenostop

58. Man’s worst enemy

I was late once in high school. I lived pretty close to my high school around 10-15mins walk. I would usually walk to school. One day, I was like 2 mins away from my school and I saw a huge German shepherd walking unsupervised on the street I take to get to the school. That dog didn’t look friendly at all, as soon as that dog saw me he came after me.

He looked pretty p***ed. His eyes were fixed at me and I was like this is where I die. I then started running as far as I could. The chase lasted around 15mins and luckily I saw a cop who saved me. When I showed up to the class, the cop was there with me to tell the professor that this poor kid was running for his life. It was so awkward.

astanamufasa

59. A confusing road trip

My driver’s ed teacher needed to pick something up from somewhere 3 hours away from our town. If my driving partner and I did that, we wouldn’t need any more practise hours for the rest of the semester, so we agreed to drive there and back. He wrote us both notes, which none of our teachers believed. He cleared it with the school the next day.

Side note, we never actually saw what he picked up. He went into a building that didn’t have a sign or any distinguishing marks. He brought out a 2′ cube box and put it into the trunk. From the track record of the teachers at my school, it was probably illegal.

the_planes_walker

60. Comedy of errors

My friend got shot by his dog, with his own gun. His dad, brother and my friend were duck hunting. They had finished what amounted to a very short-lived trip due to a small family issue back at home. His gun was propped up on a tree. Their dog saw a squirrel, the dog went after a squirrel. The squirrel went up the tree, the dog chased it, knocked the gun and accidentally set the gun off which hit my friend right in the upper leg.

Had 4 witnesses to the shooting but the cops didn’t intentionally believe the story until another witness who had no part said he saw the same thing.

PJExpat

61. Person chasing dog chasing cat

My parents’ dog started chasing stray cats. I commuted to school with a 40-minute commute. I missed my gym class twice because the dog got so excited she lost all of her manners. The dog chased the cats in about two ft of hardened and withered snow. She was a golden doodle so she was smart enough to know she was in trouble and would not come back to the house.

I spent the entire gym class in my ugg boots in the snow trying to catch her. My college gym teacher was a cool guy. He never penalized me or even asked. I missed 3 classes and still got an A in running class.

Csherman92

62. Emergency kitten rescue

It was my senior year of high school and my sister and I were on the way to school one morning. I noticed something white in the ditch on the side of the road as I drove by. I don’t know why, but my brain told me it was weird and that I needed to turn around and check it out. I pull up and there’s a tiny Siamese looking kitten curled up, soaking wet, in the ditch on the side of the road.

It was late winter/early spring at this point so it had frosted overnight and the kitty was very very cold. I scooped him up in a towel and had my sister hold him while I raced us to school. We arrive about 15 minutes late. I couldn’t bring the cat into school with me through the main office and I didn’t know what else to do, so I frantically knocked on the window of one of my favourite teachers.

I had my sister put this kitten in the pet carrier and bring it to the side door, where my teacher meets me. I had to cut her off before she could yell at me, and explained how I had found an injured kitten in the side of the road and that she needed to help me hide it somewhere until the end of the day. She ended up hiding the kitty in a spare classroom, falling in love, and keeping him!

Not_a_cool_username

63. A late liquid lunch

I was teaching adults at the time, and one student came into class ten minutes late due to business drinking. He was really drunk, but was coherent enough in a second language that the other students just thought he was hilarious. Since it was a business first then school, it was a bit harrowing for me since I had to closely monitor for potential customer complaints (including from the drunk guy if I kicked him out), but it was a general practice class that wasn’t a requirement to progress and everyone else was having a good time, so it worked out in the end.

Kethrycariad

64. Wedding gone wrong

I teach college students. This was a student who missed her final exam. “My best friend and maid of honour broke into my house, cut my wedding dress to shreds, slashed my tires and ran off with my fiancé on my honeymoon trip.” All true, poor kid. I followed the whole saga on her FB page and I’m just thankful that her five brothers never tracked down the fiancé because then there would’ve been a murder on top of everything else.

Elvis_Take_The_Wheel

65. Right on time

In high school I would walk into class right before or as the second bell would ring for the first hour classes. I lived a block away from the school and could time myself getting there almost perfectly so I wouldn’t be late but walking in just in time. My science was a goofy guy and would play pranks on the students and we would do the same to him.

I was pretty much the only student that used this back door to the school as it was the closest to my parent’s house. One day while walking to school I get to the back door and my science teacher is in the small window of the door with a big grin on his face, shaking keys in the window. He locked the door and when I asked to be let in he just shook his head.

I had to run around to the opposite end of the school to get in and arrive at his class a couple minutes late. He made me go to the office and get a tardy slip. The office lady was confused as I was “always right on time.” I explained what happens. She laughed and redacted my tardy slip.

Dr_Siouxs

66. My hamster ate my uniform

I was late, and out of school uniform because my hamster had escaped, and got into the draw I kept my uniforms in. He decided to spend all night destroying them. I brought an eaten up shirt as proof. My teacher decided to staple the uniform to a piece of construction paper and hung it up on the wall. She had the class do some creative writing on reasons they could be late for school.

She hung the stories around the shirt. The shirt stayed up on the wall as long as I was in that school.

_That_One_Fellow_

67. Accidental kidnapping

On my way to an internship in graduate school, I always passed this bus stop and sometimes, depending on timing, the kids had already gotten on the bus. Well, this particular morning there was a kid (2nd grader) sitting on the curb crying who I knew was a kid I’d seen before there. I stopped and he told me he missed the bus and his mom had left for work. Without thinking, I told this kid to get in the car and I’d drop him off at the elementary school down the road.

It occurred to me once this child was in my car that this would DEFINITELY be considered kidnapping if something bad happened. When I was late to the internship, I explained that I inadvertently kidnapped a kid trying to be a Good Samaritan.

deane_ec4

68. Excitable puppies

I normally bike to school through a park. Some weeks ago there was an elderly lady with two dogs just playing a bit with them. I normally slow down quite a bit when I see them but I was running late and the „road“ was big enough for three meters between me and her dogs. While passing her I suddenly see that one dog is charging at something in front of me. I of course slam the brakes to avoid hitting the poor thing.

My bike made a front flip and I had to jump over the handlebars. Because it rained all night the “road“ was very muddy so now I looked like I took a bath in the mud. My foot hurt pretty bad but the dog was fine. Five minutes later I ran to class and that was two minutes too late. I couldn’t walk right and was covered in mud. My hand were bloody and my pants were ripped in places they normally weren’t. AND THE TEACHER DIDN’T BELIEVE MY STORY.

Benneck123

69. Too windy for school

This happened when I was in 2nd grade I think? I lived out in the country and my family used to have this large pop-up garage made of a thick canvas and a metal frame which was tied to the ground. Anyway, there was a very large storm with high winds that overnight picked up the structure and moved it like 50 meters to the top of our driveway.

Effectively blocking our entire road and preventing us from leaving the house. It took my parents and some neighbours until after school had ended to remove it

StraightFromTheJar

70. Did you bring enough to share?

For some reason, my high school has a Starbucks on campus. People would be late all the time for class because they were waiting for a drink. My Chinese teacher said: “You’re only excused if you buy everyone something.” Well, one time I was gonna be late, but I realised that my Chinese class was my smallest class, and only had like 8 ppl.

So I came to class 15 mins late, and my teacher was like: “Care to explain yourself? Why are you so late?” I said nothing and held up a few drinks, croissants, and muffins. My teacher stared at me. “You said I was excused if I brought stuff from Starbucks right?” She just smiled and let me hand out the Starbucks to everyone. After I was done, she asked: “Anything for me?” I walked over to her desk and gave her an apple. Lol.

Incognonymous

71. Cat rescue

I was 45 minutes late for an 80-minute class during my undergrad that was attendance based because a cat was stuck in a tree on my walk to school. Prof wasn’t thrilled with me (he was very mad) but I had photo proof and he was a cat guy so he didn’t reprimand me too much in the end. I flagged down a cable guy with a ladder on his car and he helped me get a very distressed Howard the cat from his branch.

At first, my prof totally didn’t believe me but I got Facebook in on it (i made a post asking if anyone I knew in the area was home and had a ladder) and had proof so I was let off the hook. I had a reputation for having weird/random stuff happen to me during my undergrad.

Hanlon37

72. Not a cheery mood

I’m a TA for a swim activity class. Monday a student came in wearing sunglasses so I asked if she was hungover. She pulled off the sunglasses to reveal a black eye from being dropped during cheer. She also informed me that she had been put on concussion protocol as a result. I proceeded to excuse her from class for the next two weeks.

M3dee

73. An excuse becoming true

One day our teacher came and checked the absent students. I texted my friend the situation, and he texted me back that it was okay, he had already told our teacher that his bike had broken on his way to school. We both knew it was an excuse, not the truth. However, after about half an hour I saw him with both hands dirty as he entered the classroom.

It turns out that after he had made the excuse, his bike’s chain really did come off, and he had to fix the bike on the road. So the teacher really did buy his story.

Ataraillp

74. Waking up in the closet

When I was in high school, I used to sleepwalk (appr. once a week). It was fine, it did not really bother me. This one time, sleeping me decided it was a good idea to walk into my bedroom closet, lay down on top of my shoes and close the closet doors. In the closet – which I guess was now my new bedroom – you could hardly hear the alarm going off.

At the moment the class was about to start I woke up (and very surprised might I add). When I finally arrived at school, and ran into the classroom, I answered, before the teacher could ask anything, that I woke up in the closet and did not hear the alarm. The teacher did not know I had my occasional sleepwalking adventures, so it must have been very weird for him.

After a silence, the teacher stated: “That is so weird and random, it must be true! Please sit down, but after class, please tell me more, I’m intrigued.”

Jette_ygrecje

75. A mascara explosion

I once opened the door for a girl who was late and she said: “Oh my god! So sorry I’m late, my mascara got everywhere because of the rain!” She looked fine and I said: “You look fine, where is all the mascara …?” She said: “Go check the ladies room”. The only time I’ve visited a ladies bathroom and it was like a bomb went off in there. The whole sink and mirror and towel dispenser were mascara black…

Flying_joesoe

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