After school today, one of my students (who wasn't in class today, mind you) came into my room.

He asked me if he could drop my class. I told him that if he dropped the class he would be drop failed at this point with an F on his record for it. I then asked WHY he wanted to drop the class. This kid has more absent or tardy days than not, I think.

He's a senior and the school has a policy that any senior who misses more than 15 days of any given class will not be allowed to walk at graduation. It's sort of a senioritis prevention program. Absences can be for any reason, illness, trips, whatever. This can be appealed, for example for a students who had a serious illness but otherwise maintained his/her good standing, but in his case, there are no grounds for exceeding the limit. We have 9 weeks of school left in a 19 week semester and he currently has 15 absences. That means 1 more absence for ANY reason and he can't graduate on stage.

His solution? Just drop the class. Then he asked me if he dropped the class, how would he learn the material to prepare for the AP exam in May. Sorry man, but if you drop my class because you're so lame that you can't manage to come to class, I'm NOT bailing your sorry ass out for the AP exam, even if it might reflect poorly on me if you DON'T do well on the exam. I didn't exactly use those words though.

I told him that I did not control the drop decision and he had to go talk to his counselor or one of the assistant principals. I HOPE HOPE HOPE that they don't let him drop, it's a lame way around a perfectly reasonable system. Maybe he should just COME TO CLASS!!

This is not a new policy and he should have paid attention all along. I, if noone else, have been telling him that he needs to come to class.

We'll see what the results are when they happen, but I think I'll talk to the administrators about this tomorrow morning too. They'll make whatever decision they want, but I just hope it's the right one!! :)