Sadie Gets A Detention

Sadie came home on Monday and announced that she had been given a detention, which she was going to have to serve on Tuesday - yesterday. Sadie never gets detentions, so I was a little bit concerned and surprised.

“How come you got a detention?” I asked her.

She shook her head and scrunched up her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said.

“How can you not know why you got a detention at school?”

“I know the reason I got the detention,” Sadie said. “I just don’t know why I got the detention. There’s a difference.” Seeing the confused look on my face, she continued. “The teacher said I didn’t do my homework for the second time,” she said. “But really it’s only the first time. And the only reason I didn’t do it was because I had that dance recital all weekend plus I had to work. There just wasn’t enough time. So for the first time ever - and I mean ever - I didn’t do my homework. But the teacher thinks it’s the second time so I got a detention.”

“That’s not fair,” I said.

“Well, there’s nothing anybody can do about it,” Sadie, who spends two to three hours almost every night doing her homework, said.

“I could call the school and talk to your teacher for you,” I offered. “Maybe she made a mistake.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “I’d rather you didn’t,” she said. “Because we can’t prove this is only the first time I didn’t do my homework. There are no witnesses. I’ll just do my time and that’ll be the end of it.”

“I’m a witness,” I said. “I always see you doing your homework. In fact, the only time I saw you not do homework was this weekend, which more-or-less backs up your side of the story.”

“Dad - just leave it alone, OK?” Sadie said, sternly. “I’ll just do my time and it’ll be done and finished with.”

“But if you’re getting punished for something you didn’t do - ”

“That’s life, dad,” Sadie said. “You play the cards you get dealt. You take your lumps.”

“You’re so brave.”

Sadie shrugged. “Didn’t you ever get a detention in school, dad?”

“No,” I said, truthfully, “although it’s not like I didn’t try. But they couldn’t catch me and maybe that’s why they’re so aggressive these days. Maybe, knowing how kids in years gone by got away with everything, they’re being pre-emptive.”

“Pre what?”

“Emptive,” I said. “Like George Bush in Iraq. You don’t wait until it’s too late. You don’t wait, for example, until a student doesn’t do their homework for the second time. You strike first - preemptively - like Bush did in Iraq in the hope that he could avoid a war.”

“But they had a war in Iraq,” Sadie said.

“Yeah, but only in order to avoid a war,” I said.

“You think that’s what’s going on with my teacher?”

“It’d be my educated guess,” I said, nodding.

“You think George Bush needs to get involved?”

“Nah,” I said. “He’s too busy. But if you want we can paint up some ‘FREE SADIE’ signs and march up and down the school driveway.”

Sadie thought about that for a moment. Then she shrugged again and said, “Whatever,” and got up from the table and announced she was going to go up to her room and do her homework.

“Why don’t you just watch TV instead?” I said. “After all, you’re doing the time. So you may as well do the crime, too.”