Trivia: The pretty girl in the corvette that pulls up next to Hamilton, when he is wearing the Pirate uniform, is Nancy Wilson of the rock band Heart. At the time Wilson was dating Cameron Crowe, who wrote the film's screenplay, and later got married.
Trivia: This is Nicolas Cage's first film, you can see him at the beginning talking to Judge Reinhold just before somebody throws something at him. He is also at the restaurant looking up from behind the grill, when the customer is yelling at Brad.
Trivia: This is currently the only film in which Nicolas Cage is credited by his birth name, Nicolas Coppola.
Trivia: Although taking place in high school, all the actors playing the main Ridgemont high student characters were of older age than high school ranging from age 19-26 during filming (the oldest being Judge Reinhold, Brian Backer, and Robert Romanus were all around 25 or 26 at the time the movie was released).
Answer: As a teacher myself, you learn to be able to recognize "problem" students fairly quickly (those that are going to be disruptive, late, etc on a regular basis). Mr. Hand is simply overly strict in regards to Spicoli unexcused tardy and seems not to allow students into class late, thus earning the student an absent. Mr. Hand does say he "will make you" attend his class. In addition, Spicoli was high and, in Mr. Hand's mind, disrespectful (Spicoli said "hey I know that kid" while they were talking) so Mr. Hand showed Spicoli disrespect in return as a way to teach him a lesson.
Bishop73