15-year-old turns her school project in 1 minute late, dad refuses to ask teacher to change her 0% grade: 'The project is assigned a week and a half in advance, and she had time to work on it.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Oct 5, 2026 5:45 PM EDT

Was this dad in the right, or should he have sided with his wife?

When I was younger, I couldn't really relate to kids who had to get straight As no matter what. Maybe that was because I was an A- or B+ student, but I was always annoyed when people acted like getting the grade that you earned was the worst thing in the world. I was lucky enough that I didn't have parents who totally micromanaged my education, constantly asking me about my grades and why I earned the grades I did. I knew I was responsible for my own grades, and if I did a bad job, my mom wasn't going to go crying to the teacher about why I got the grade I did. She knew that I was the only one who could control my grades, and so did I. 

Not all kids have parents who can accept that they're imperfect. They either demand their kids earn perfect grades, or else they go to the teacher and demand that she explain why little Billy got an 89 on the essay he spent 30 whole minutes writing. I don't envy the kids whose parents demand perfection, or the teachers who have to justify their grading to entitled, whiny parents. Teachers aren't always emboldened to tell parents directly that their kid did not do the work to the best of their ability, and that's why they didn't earn a perfect grade. 

If I had gotten a 0 on a major grade, I would've been pretty freaked out, but I don't think I would've gotten my parents to tell the teacher to change my grade, like the mom in this story tried to do with her husband. 

Advertisement
  • Woman in blue and gray plaid top beside concrete structure
    via Meg

    A teenage girl who turned in her school project late, making her fail.

    Models for explanatory purposes only.  

  • Am I the bad guy for refusing to fight the teacher on my daughters grade on her project?

    My daughter is 15 a sophomore in high school. In her history class, she has this quarterly project that is divided into 3 parts. Each part required. a work cited page, as they're mostly analyzing some type of document or something. Basically it's printing out the
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • document, the page analyzing it and works cited page. This teacher has a rule that if the analyzing page and works cited isn't turned in on Google Classroom by 11:59 the day before it's due, you get a zero for that third of the project, even if you did it, and this
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • teacher locks it at 11:59. They also have to be printed out as well as turned in online. My daughter does sports in the fall, so she was working on it late at night the day before it was due and turned was done by 12:01-12:05. So she got a
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • zero for that portion of the project, and got a 61 overall for the project. She talked to the teacher about it but she wasn't budging, and mt daugjter wanted me to intervene but Im not going to. The project is assigned a week and a half in advance, and she
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • had time to work on it. It shouldn't have even been turned it anywhweee near 11pm. I wasnt mad at her, she made a mistake, but she was mad at me for refusing to fight the teacher on this and is being cold.
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • My wife thinks that the teacher is being harsh and that I'm being mean by not intervening. AITA?
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • Low-Bumblebee2276 Your wife is wrong.
    via u/Low-Bumblebee2276
  • ComfortableOrange625 OP I think her opinion is driven by the fact she doesn't like my daughter's teacher. My wife doesn't like her teaching style, or the fact that said project is peer graded and not graded by the teacher, etc.
    via u/ComfortableOrange625
  • A close up of students looking at a test
    via Andy Quezada (Unsplash+)

    A test graded by the student's peers instead of the student's teacher

    Scene shown is a visual representation.

  • blakesmate I think I agree with her on the peer grading thing. High school kids can be petty
    via u/blakesmate
  • LadyLightTravel And they can mark you down so they get a better grade than you. It really needs to be graded against a standard.
    via u/LadyLightTravel
  • Inner Tumbleweed6724 It definitely is harsh especially to mark it down straight to 0 and not just apply a penalty like 10% or smt. Although, since it was explicitly mentioned there's no valid argument against the deadline policy
    via u/Inner_Tumbleweed6724
  • KlatuuBarrada Nicto Deadlines are part of life. If you can't meet them, you're gonna have problems.
    via u/KlatuuBarradaNicto
  • Planner organizer
    via Curated Lifestyle (Unsplash+)

    A professional is checking her schedule so that she can properly meet her deadlines at work. 

    Actor performance of story events.

  • penguin_on_stilts And some deadlines are minute accurate with no grace period. I work where I sometimes have to evaluate tender responses, and late by 1 second means we cannot legally consider it or else we have to restart the entire process again, but this time with extra scrutiny.
    via u/penguin_on_stilts
  • a_little_idyll Legal filings. You're late, too bad. And you don't wait until the last second because there's so much that can go wrong. As a person who is motivated by last-minute pressure, I feel for your daughter! But these are the chances we take when we don't develop other methods and philosophies of work.
    via u/a_little_idyll
  • Revolutionary_Judge8 The amount of people I have to coach through the idea that something has to be done exactly at this time, like 11:30 AM and 530pm is unbelievable.. Dude, im a happy go lucky guy, do things my way and probably make extra work for myself by putting things off to the last minute, but I hit times every time..... Then, I have to write other people up for not hitting those times....
    via u/Revolutionary_Judge8
  • They'd be like, oh, but I was only like ten minutes behind... It's still not on time. I have to write you up...... I'm like, why not get it done at eleven fifteen... Why not get it done from 9 to ten? When there's nothing to do.......hr made a provision to the company policy stating that 1131 is not 1130, and that everyone understood...still...still I hear "i messed up the timing, I didnt plan for it to take this long, i forgot I had to add some stuff, I was only a minute or 2 late".....
    via u/Revolutionary_Judge8
  • tzj199 You're doing the best for your daughter by showing her that actions have consequences. It's unfortunate for her, but it's a low-stakes learning opportunity.
    via u/tzj199

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

school teaching teacher parenting grades
Scroll Down For The Next Article