Firstly I graduated from the USMA, have a masters from UVA, and have taught classes at three different major universities and several smaller colleges. In my experiences at these various academic institutions I’ve never came across a school that would even consider locking the door on students. This is just absolutely unacceptable from a safety standpoint and I don’t know of any sane school administrator that wouldn’t adamantly ban any such practice.
Anyways, at the Academy you weren’t late for class, if you were you got demerits. However a military academy is a vastly different situation from a public or private school.
College is pretty much the only situation I can think of where the customer pays to get bossed around by his “employees.”
I do think professors need to have certain powers within the classroom so that anarchy does not ensue. But I think there should be limits and professors should never think the professor-student relationship is akin to a boss-employee relationship. Because the student is the one paying the professor’s salary, not vice versa.