No More of This for Me

I'm glad I won't have to deal with things like this anymore. Toward the bottom of the linked article is a story titled "Mom Does Daughter's Detention." Danielle Pelletier, a 39-year-old mother in Maine served her daughter's detention for her. It seems that the daughter was assigned a detention due to an unexcused absence. The mother pulled her daughter out of school half an hour early for a hair-styling appointment! The mother felt she should the serve the detention as she was the one who made her daughter miss school, and she doesn't think the policy is fair. She said, "The whole point of this is this shouldn't be happening. I should be able to come to school and take [my daughter] out when I need to." Excuse me, but she needed to take her daughter out of school for a hair-styling appointment? Perhaps that's when it was convenient for her do have the appointment, but it hardly sounds like a need to me. The school's administrators defended themselves by stating what state law allows for reasons for excused absences -- personal illness, medical appointments, religious holiday observance, family emergencies, and pre-approved personal or educational purposes.