# Skipped gym class costs student diploma



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

A decision to take Advanced Placement biology instead of gym will cost a Bow High School senior her diploma, but it won't keep her from going to college in the fall.

Though Isabel Gottlieb is a good student, a trumpet player in the school band and holds varsity letters in three sports, she discovered last fall she was one gym class shy of having enough credits to graduate next month.

She asked for a waiver, but the school wouldn't budge, telling her instead she had to drop a class to take gym.

"Why would I drop an AP biology class to take P.E.?" the 18-year-old said. "It's just not on my priority list."

The missing credit wasn't caught by the school last spring when Gottlieb's schedule was set. The class in question is called BEST, or Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow, and is required for all Bow students to graduate.

At the Seattle high school Gottlieb attended before moving to Bow before her junior year, gym requirements often were waived for students in varsity sports. But those waivers aren't something Bow High School is willing to accept.

"Waivers vary from school to school and they're not standardized at all," said Principal George Edwards.

Gottlieb added the class last year after the school told her she had to take it, but then dropped it when she found out it was too much on top of classes she was already taking, including two Advanced Placement classes and calculus.

Both Gottlieb and her mother said the school suggested dropping either band, chorus, AP biology or calculus. But she and her mother decided sacrificing any of those would have diminished the quality of Gottlieb's education.

"I'm trying to get into college and someone isn't going to want to see someone drop an AP biology class a month into the year in order to pick up P.E.," Gottlieb said.

There will likely be no compromises in time for graduation. The class is not offered in the summer.

And it may not matter. Gottlieb already has been accepted to Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., where she plans to major in biology.

Trinity is aware of Gottlieb's situation and said that as long as she gets her General Educational Development, or GED, in time, there won't be a problem.

Gottlieb said that she already has taken the practice test and, once she hears back on that, will schedule a time to take the official version of the high school equivalency test.

Meanwhile, her mother, Ashley Warner, is planning a "non-graduation" party for her daughter.

"We realized that not graduating wasn't the end of the world," Warner said. "But it took a long time to come to that conclusion."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/05/08/teen_skips_gym_loses_diploma/


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Im kind of split on this one. Although AP classes are more important than Gym class. If someone is to make it in real life they need not rely on others to supervise there every move. They should have known they were short certian credits in order to graduate. and blaiming the school administration is a cop out that they better not try later in life at a job.

What are all your thoughts?


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## Vivid-Dawn (Jan 18, 2005)

I'm sort of split on this, too. If she was in sports, wouldn't that be about the same as P.E.? The whole point of PE is to make sure kids are getting excersize (there is some health lessons - or there was in my class...we'd have half an hour of excersize, then about 20 minutes of learning about proper diet, grooming, etc.).
At least she wasn't trying to get out of it, just to be lazy!


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

That is sad...
but most of time people make sure you keep track of your credits, we would meet twice a year to look at our status and pick classes for the next yr. 

But rules are rules and you need that damn PE credit. I would drop a class to take it because I'd rather have a diploma over a GED it looks better.


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

wow, thats horrible. the school should have caught it during schedule time


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