Throughout every teachers’ educational careers, they receive multiple outlandish excuses weekly from students. From the timeless “my dog ate my homework” to simply “I did not know that was an assignment,” here at Etowah, teachers hear far out excuses daily. Here are some of their favorites: 

Literature teacher, Letita Lee’s: “Ok…see what happened was…I was doing my homework, and I was drinking a slushie, but I spilled the slushie, but it was so delicious that my dog and cat smelled it and started fighting over the paper so they could eat the slushie remnants. I need another day.” 

Crazy, right? But not as crazy as this one given to ESOL teacher, Alexis Laughunn’s. On the day of her final exam, one of her students missed class because on the way to school, he had to give his dog “mouth-to-mouth” resuscitation.  

Some students stick to the truth. Paul Peterson, science teacher, was informed by one of his students that they could not study for their test because they were too busy “training for their COD X-Box tournament.” 

These days, students cannot even keep up with their own lies. One of literature teacher, Julia Reeves, students said, “I could not do my homework because my flash drive became corrupt.” Sounds fair, right? Nope. The homework was a worksheet they had to complete in pencil.  

Nothing tops Special Education teacher, Kate Salvino’s, favorite excuse: “I buried my homework with my dead mother.” 

One of literature teacher, Marsha Loversky’s, students told her that their dog peed in their backpack, then proceeded to take out the soiled homework.  

Teachers even hear excuses from students’ parents! One parent explained to Mike Foley, math teacher, why her son could not stay awake during class. It was because “he likes to eat orange chicken for lunch, and orange chicken makes him sleepy.”  

As the old saying goes: “Excuses are like armpits, everyone has them, and they all stink.”