Falling ill and missing school becomes inevitable with recent flu outbreaks, and students endure punishment for it with an absence, which most find unfair. The absences hurt the most when finals roll around, often making it impossible to exempt. Penalizing students for their lack of attendance when they consistently maintain above a 94 in a class, comes across as unfair to hard-working and highly involved students.

Though, the finals we take at the end of each semester only amount for 10 percent of  a student’s grade, but holds the power to drop a student’s grade from an A to a B, depending on how their grade on the exam. Studying for 8 classes of exams proves hard for anyone, and exemptions help reduce the stress of those tests. With fewer tests to study for, the better a student performs on the tests they actually take.

Another reason absences must not penalize students, comes from students infecting everyone else. Students choose not to stay home, but instead they come to school and cause even more students to miss school due to illness, so they have the privilege to take their exams.The superintendent’s student board voted during the 2012 school year that an absence, no matter the reason, stays an absence.

The reason behind it results from people who abuse the policy, because they gain access to  doctor’s notes easily. The school needs to revote on the absence policy, but enforce some rules about abusing the policy.