Labels go on in a second and come off in years. Be slow to stick one on anybody.

A word attaches to a person quickly and then does the thinking for everyone who hears it. Lazy, dramatic, weird, a snitch. Once it is on, every new thing that person does gets read through it, and the evidence that would remove it barely registers. That imbalance is how one bad week can follow somebody through an entire school.

Describe behavior instead of people this week. He was late twice rather than he is unreliable. It sounds like a small change and it leaves the door open for somebody to be different tomorrow.