20+ Excuses for Being Late That Would Get You an A+ in Creativity

Considering how witty children can be, we can be sure teachers worldwide are familiar with millions of excuses and white lies for not meeting deadlines. And while you’d think that’s as far as it goes, the most unusual excuses don’t always come from children. Check out the most outlandish incidents that students actually had and that weren’t credible for teachers.

• Student at Uni. Was late for an 8 am because the night before, I slept in the hallway of one of our class buildings doing homework (we had sofas and desks around there, so it was a nice and quiet place to study, also open 24/7). Woke up around 8:30 and ran to my class which was one floor above the one I was. The professor excused me and told me I could skip his class because they saw me sleeping there and said something along the lines of “at least you were doing your assignments, so I’ll let you go this time”.. © asamihitsuka / Reddit
• Not me but my program coordinator told the story at orientation. Girl was a really good student. Always on time, studies like crazy, good grades. Overall close to a perfect student. Pass or fail exam comes, and she’s a no-show. They call her, text her, email her. 3 hours after the exam starts, she walks in with an IKEA catalog and the name and phone number of the manager written on it. She had been stuck inside a broken-down elevator there. She had no cell service in the elevator, so she couldn’t call and explain. They let her start the exam in a separate room. © QuixoticDame / Reddit
• A student turned in a paper that was singed around the edges. His claim was he and his girl were getting romantic, and a candle lit his drapes on fire and I guess he pretty much burned his whole side of the house down. Verified the story with the news that night. © SquareDetective / Reddit

• Not a teacher, but a high school kid left class for the bathroom and returned 20 minutes later. Obviously, the teacher thought he was skipping class, so they asked them why they took so long to use the bathroom, and the kid said that he ran out of toilet paper... and had to use his sock instead. Sure, sure enough, he was only wearing one sock. Normally I would think it was just a joke, and they had some logical reason for only wearing one sock. © Reddit-User-3000 / Reddit
• Not a teacher, but in primary school, we had a senile cat, it peed all over my workbook, I thought about it, realized the teacher would not believe me, so I carefully double-bagged it in 2 plastic bags & brought it to school. I ran to school, just made it on the bell, teacher asks where my workbook is, I tell her, “the cat peed on it” she says, “don’t lie, where is your workbook?” so I pick up the plastic bag, put it on the table and tear open the plastic, the book had dried, but the smell was so bad the teacher gagged, she got me to write my lessons on a separate paper sheet for the day and never accused me of lying again. © Dyingforsomelove / Reddit
• Electricity went out in the middle of winter while I lived in a dry cabin with an iguana and a bearded dragon. I missed a college exam trying to keep the two warm. The teacher assistant at the time thought my reasoning was legit enough. I was able to take the exam later. © sourlizard86 / Reddit

If you like these stories, here are other cool articles about students, teachers, and other professional excuse-finders. (1, 2, 3).

• This actually happened to my wife when she was at college. She was seriously late to class, and when confronted, she —normally a meek and non-confrontative human being— snarled at the prof, “Well, my cat was giving birth, I had to stay with her, didn’t I?!” She got off scot-free. © S34d0g / Reddit
• Parent was a volunteer first responder. Parent got a call while student and smaller sibling were eating breakfast and student had to drop off smaller sibling at school, thus missing the bus. We didn’t buy it at first, but we let it slide. Then at the parent-teacher conference a month later, the parent confirmed the story. It’s hard to get mad at a 16-year-old kid for taking responsibility. © Jumbobog / Reddit
• A friend of mine showed up 2 hours late without homework and without his backpack. The teacher, of course, was mad and asked him why he was so late and without his work. My friend replied that his little brother had thrown his backpack in his room, locked the door, and shoved the main key and spare key under the crack so the door could not be opened. Of course, the teacher did not believe him... That is until my friend showed him the security video of the event. © maskedghostwolf / Reddit
  

• Not a teacher but a student. This happened when I was in 9th grade (15-16 years old). So it was the first lesson after lunch. Two boys were missing when the teacher took attendance. Since it was a small town school, people were always missing, and literally, no one cared. About 20 minutes into class, the missing boys knock on the door to our classroom. “Sorry for being late, but we got a free pizza and didn’t know what to do with it!”. In their hands was a family-sized pizza. The boys explained they had eaten lunch at the town’s only pizza place. When they were about to leave, the pizza chef asked if they wanted a free family-sized pizza because someone had called and ordered it but never retrieved it. The boys had then tried to fit the pizza into one of their lockers, but the box was too big to fit into a locker. Their solution: Bring it to class! Of course, the teacher didn’t let them have the pizza in the classroom. They had to put it on a table in the hallway. Luckily, no one ate it while it was out there, and the boys could enjoy their free meal when that lesson was over! Best excuse I’ve ever heard! © wishiwasmegmccaffrey / Reddit
• Not me, but my aunt was a teacher. She was really frustrated one day when a kid said that he had literally been attacked by a rabid dog, which chased him up a tree and he got stuck. Turns out the firefighters had to get him. © A_G00d_B0i / Reddit
• On the last day of my senior year, I finally had a license, so I was like, “Yes! I get to drive myself to school at least once before graduating!” Got lost for three hours. Ended up having to stop at a Dunkin’ Donuts four cities away and use wifi to look up directions. When I finally showed up, it turned out I was about 10 minutes past the cutoff point for “acceptable lateness,” meaning I had to call my mom and tell her what had happened in front of the principal. Great memory. My sense of direction has not improved ten years later. Thank god for GPS. © StaticRich / Reddit

Sometimes, the craziest anecdotes at school are told by the teachers and not by the students, here is some proof of that (1, 2).

• When I was in high school I hadn’t slept in like a week and was walking to school, and I stepped on a cherry on the ground and thought I crushed a tiny person because, you know, I was sleep deprived and the sound of the pit cracking sounded like bones, and there was red juice running everywhere. Showed up to my first class in tears, my teacher had to ask what was wrong, and I was excused from classes and sent to a counselor. So it wasn’t true that I’d crushed a tiny person, but it was true that I thought I did. © jemdamos / Reddit
• College math class. I’d burned my hand and was taking painkillers. I could take 3 and still function, but that morning in my sleep-addled state, I’d taken 3 as I was getting ready, forgot, and took 3 more as I was running out the door. Realized what I’d done about 10 seconds later, thought, “oh no,” and went to class. I had a good relationship with the teacher, and she knew about the hand already, so when I got to class I just told her what happened and that I felt fine now but that I didn’t know what was gonna happen. She just told me, “sit in the back, if the formulas I’m writing start melting off the board, just get up and go home.” © NotThtPatrickStewart / Reddit
• My math teacher said the best excuse he ever got for a student not getting homework finished was that there was a cow in her pool. My understanding was that it was a family effort to get the cow out and that the cow was in danger, and it was a lengthy process. I’m not entirely sure what went down, and I am still wondering if there was a fence around the pool... and if so, what kind of Houdini bovine stuff went down. © sporknife / Reddit