“It seems like a hellish environment to bring up children, with teachers gloating over socking it to hard-working parents who show up late due to traffic, etc.”
The parent has done this multiple times and did not contact the school about being late. @ $2 a minute the $116 would be assessed on 58 minutes. To me the onus is on the parent when unavoidable delays occur to contact the school. They failed to do that.
Sometimes you have to hit the mule between the eyes with a 2x4 to get their attention.
I was late picking up my son only once. The doctor put me on a new medication and the side effects were horrible. It zoned me out so completely, the school reached out to my emergency contact to get my son.
When my friend entered my home, she was so worried about my condition that she called my husband to come home and stayed with me.
I went to the school the next day, explained what happened, and apologized.
Trust me, schools and daycare know who the bad actors are.
I took that stuff only once. Threw the rest of the bottle away and just dealt with the pain.