HIGH LIFE: A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : How About, ‘the Dog Ate My Homework’?

Homework and the reasons it wasn’t done are the oldest couple still going together in high school. Like the generations of students that preceded them, homework dodgers of the ‘90s rely on imagination spiced with outlandishness to explain why those algebra problems must wait for another day.

High Life asks: “What’s the most creative excuse you’ve ever used for not turning in a homework assignment?”

“I did it in my mind, but I didn’t write it down.”

Donny Lin, 17,

senior, Valencia

“I was doing my work on my computer and was just about to print it out when I ran out of ink. So I went to the store and when I came back my little brother had deleted the whole thing, even the program.”

Ricky Kim, 16,

sophomore, Villa Park

“I’m a senior; we don’t do homework.”

Christie Engesser, 18,

senior, Ocean View

“We went out of town for a few days and the hotel we stayed in burned down.”

Lindsay Prior, 14,

freshman, Bolsa Grande

“Some of the questions violated my religious principles.”

Sean Myers, 17,

senior, Dana Hills

“It spontaneously combusted.”

Andy Huttenhoff, 17,

senior, Servite

“The homework was not going to enrich and support the growth of my mind in the way that I saw fit.”

Vincent Pla, 17,

junior, Loara

“(A certain student) was busy and didn’t have time to finish mine.”

Todd Miller, 18,

senior, El Toro

“The most creative excuse I ever used was that I left it at my cousin’s house. I’m not very creative.”

Karen Jhawar, 17,

junior, Connelly

“My mom accidentally took it to work and shredded it.”

Jason Lee, 17,

senior, Servite

“I made it into a paper airplane and it accidentally flew away.”

Julie Cronin, 16,

junior, Santa Margarita

“I was hanging with my girlfriend.”

David Preissler, 16,

junior, Servite

“I put a Band-Aid on my finger and said that I had a cut there, and that it hurt too much to write.”

Ben Lancaster, 16,

junior, Loara

“My mother, who was 9 1/2 months pregnant, went into labor.”

Angela Hidalgo, 17,

senior, Dana Hills

“I was hungry and I started to eat a little bit of the paper. Soon I realized that there was nothing left.”

Kristen Koenig, 16,

junior, Santa Margarita

“I had an eye spasm.”

Scott Hildebrecht, 15,

sophomore, Dana Hills

“I forgot it in my

book at home.”

Jennifer Seidman, 17,

senior, Valencia

“I’m illiterate!”

Chris Moscoe, 16,

junior, Loara

“I have never made any excuses.”

Trasa Hung, 17,

senior, Valencia

“I was doing my homework outside by the pool when the wind picked it up and my paper fell in the pool. I managed to get it and I went into my room to dry it out with the blow dryer, except the blow dryer burned a hole through it.”

Jenny Hover, 16,

sophomore, Santa Margarita

“I always tell my teachers that I had too many other things to do.”

Christine Wee, 18,

senior, Connelly

“I got a magical disappearing ink pen in a Cap’n Crunch box and then forgot I had it and used it for my homework. The next morning when it was time to turn in my homework, the page was all blank!”

Paul Buxton, 18,

senior, Ocean View

“I swear I turned it in! I put it on your desk. Don’t tell me you lost it in your piles of papers?”

Linn Do Thuy, 15,

freshman, Bolsa Grande

“I had to attend a funeral the day before, and it was too emotional for me to do my homework.”

Seema Talati, 17,

senior, Sonora

“I was curling my hair and doing my homework at the same time, when by accident I set my curling iron on my homework and it burned to ashes.”

Bethanie Nichols, 16,

sophomore, Villa Park

“I went into Algebra II with bloodshot eyes and said that the chlorine in the pool last night was so bad I couldn’t see anything all night.”

Andrea Flynn, 18,

senior, Sonora

“I had an emergency doctor’s appointment this morning, and I took out my homework to review for your class and placed it on the seat next to me so I could reach for my pen, and the janitor came by and threw it away.”

Abbie Cibu, 16,

junior, Bolsa Grande

“I came into class really upset and told (the teacher) I had done it, but on the way to school I saw somebody get hit by a car and in all of the confusion, I lost track of my things.”

Leila Tabatabaee, 17,

senior, Sonora

“It was incarcerated in a freak welding accident. (Needless to say, this excuse didn’t work.)”

Joseph Fallica, 18,

senior, Villa Park

“I got hit by a car while riding my bike. The ironic thing is, it really happened.”

Crin Van Tongeren, 17,

senior, Connelly

Next Week’s Hot Topic:

If you wanted to dress to attract the opposite sex, what would you wear?

Responses were gathered by Kelly Maakestad (Bolsa Grande), Heather Cox, (Connelly), Tina Toochinda (Dana Hills), Traci McCrimmon (El Toro), Shareen Ahned (Loara), Mary Alice Perez (Lutheran), Susanna Lee (Ocean View), Christina Ghattas (Santa Margarita), Henry York, (Servite), Aimee Johnston (Sonora), Ana Lisa Castro (Valencia) and Darice Liu (Villa Park).