You don’t even need to go as far as society. The school, or school board, will almost certainly have an exception in place for this sort of thing. This is true at all levels for death of an immediate family member.
(I speak from experience, having been exempted from final exams one year. My final grade was instead based on coursework, as if there had been no final for the class. )
In fact, odds are the school or department will have a clear policy that says concerts, sports events, and the like are not an acceptable excuse for missed work, but funerals, severe illness, and the like, are. So, to make the story more plausible, the precommitter should be the department head or principal or something like that, rather than the teacher. < / nitpick>
I don’t know the statistics, but I can assure you that not every school has such policies. Where I teach, it’s up to the instructor. (A student can also force the instructor to grant an exception as an accommodation on an individual basis for a disability, but even this must be arranged at the beginning of the term.)
RE: The Grieving Student
You don’t even need to go as far as society. The school, or school board, will almost certainly have an exception in place for this sort of thing. This is true at all levels for death of an immediate family member. (I speak from experience, having been exempted from final exams one year. My final grade was instead based on coursework, as if there had been no final for the class. )
In fact, odds are the school or department will have a clear policy that says concerts, sports events, and the like are not an acceptable excuse for missed work, but funerals, severe illness, and the like, are. So, to make the story more plausible, the precommitter should be the department head or principal or something like that, rather than the teacher. < / nitpick>
I don’t know the statistics, but I can assure you that not every school has such policies. Where I teach, it’s up to the instructor. (A student can also force the instructor to grant an exception as an accommodation on an individual basis for a disability, but even this must be arranged at the beginning of the term.)