We’ve all (except for the goody-two-shoes who are never late) come up with a creative, wonky, and always suspicious excuse for being late to class. 

Each class has students roll in late, but 9 times out of 10, the excuses never add up.

If we look at the attendance sheets, we will see that the most common excuses are “:),” “I didn’t want to come,” or the ol’ reliable “I slept in” (which we can all relate to).

Each of us has muttered the “real” reason why we’re late as we stare blankly into the sign-in sheet, but only a small few have the guts to put them in writing.

Once you have come up with your great excuse, you have to walk down the completely silent halls to your class, everyone looking at you through open classroom doors, so most of us speed up to get past the blank stares. Then, as you near your dreaded destination, you start to slow down.

This gives you a lot of time to think about the real question: What are you going to tell the teacher when they ask you why you’re late?

I asked teachers to think of the worst excuse they have ever heard. 

Mr. Andrew Steitz, a social studies teacher, said, “I had a student tell me they got lost once, even though they were a senior.” 

This excuse could be understandable for a freshman or a new student. Steitz added that his classroom hadn’t moved, and the student had been there for several months; things just didn’t check out. As you guessed, the student was marked tardy.

Surprisingly, a lot of teachers couldn’t think of a poor example of an excuse, which is good for students, I guess.

Mr. Chad Lemons, the band teacher, said that he rarely gets funny excuses from his students for being late, but if he got a good one he would probably mark them present instead of tardy.

He also explained that the main reason teachers don’t get “creative” excuses very often, is because the tardy slips take all the fun away.

“It’s very rarely a conversation, and more just…here’s the pass, and then they sit down”.

So, the next time you are pressured into coming up with the perfect excuse for being late, remember, they have heard them all before and most teachers were not born yesterday. Just be honest. Trust me, it’s for the best.