2008 Woodie Awards
New policy makes it harder for students to miss a class
Melisandra Russell
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: News
A new policy starting the spring 2008 semester at Solano is no longer allowing students to make up missed class time outside of the classes they are registered for. The new policy affects the P.E. department the most where many students would make up missed classes with the same teacher at a different class time.
"In the past I've had to miss a few P.E. classes and made them up later, but now I will be penalized," says Sarah Wiggins, a sophomore at Solano. "I also have a court date later this month and I'm hoping it doesn't fall on one of my PE days."
The reason for the new policy according to Bob Myers, Dean of P.E., is that the insurance company covering Solano students has clearly stated to the school that it will only cover students for the times and days in the classes they are enrolled in. Myers says that in the past, there have been instances where students were making up absences in another class and were injured while doing so. Because school insurance did not cover this class time, the incident ended up costing the student thousands of dollars.
Since incidents like these, there have been discussions through the fall and faculty decided to enforce the new policy this semester to protect the students.
"I thought they were trying to enforce the rule of going to class everyday since P.E. is such an easy A anyway," says Wiggins.
She feels it is inconvenient and impractical to not let students make up missed classes somehow.
"They should offer an alternative," says Wiggins.
Wiggins is not the only student who feels the policy is somewhat unfair. Marcus Daniels, also a sophomore at Solano, says "Sometimes things just come up."
Daniels also says that when he made up P.E. classes before they did limit how many classes you could make up to only three or four.
This policy does not only affect Solano though, Darla Williams, Solano P.E. teacher, says that this is probably a nationwide problem, or at least a problem for all California schools. Williams also says that this will affect the number of passing students in her classes.
"We will probably see a higher percentage of students with C's, D's and F's," says Williams. "A and B students are usually the ones who attend regularly anyway."
"In the past I've had to miss a few P.E. classes and made them up later, but now I will be penalized," says Sarah Wiggins, a sophomore at Solano. "I also have a court date later this month and I'm hoping it doesn't fall on one of my PE days."
The reason for the new policy according to Bob Myers, Dean of P.E., is that the insurance company covering Solano students has clearly stated to the school that it will only cover students for the times and days in the classes they are enrolled in. Myers says that in the past, there have been instances where students were making up absences in another class and were injured while doing so. Because school insurance did not cover this class time, the incident ended up costing the student thousands of dollars.
Since incidents like these, there have been discussions through the fall and faculty decided to enforce the new policy this semester to protect the students.
"I thought they were trying to enforce the rule of going to class everyday since P.E. is such an easy A anyway," says Wiggins.
She feels it is inconvenient and impractical to not let students make up missed classes somehow.
"They should offer an alternative," says Wiggins.
Wiggins is not the only student who feels the policy is somewhat unfair. Marcus Daniels, also a sophomore at Solano, says "Sometimes things just come up."
Daniels also says that when he made up P.E. classes before they did limit how many classes you could make up to only three or four.
This policy does not only affect Solano though, Darla Williams, Solano P.E. teacher, says that this is probably a nationwide problem, or at least a problem for all California schools. Williams also says that this will affect the number of passing students in her classes.
"We will probably see a higher percentage of students with C's, D's and F's," says Williams. "A and B students are usually the ones who attend regularly anyway."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Joe Price
posted 2/18/08 @ 9:13 PM NA
Students are complaining about having to show up to class when class is scheduled. I had to reread it a few times before it totally clicked.
Students are complaining about showing up to class. (Continued…)
Post a Comment