Manitou Springs High School Physical Education and Athletic Conditioning classes are now having to make up assignments for missing classes to hold the students accountable. 

The students aren’t happy about this at all. “I missed the whole day, and I got a zero from my gym class,” Bailey LeGere (12) said.

The teachers believe that their class is as equally important as their core classes. Last year the teachers were a lot more lenient about absences and would let students take a test during the block if they really needed to; this year is a whole new story. 

This may be because the Physical Education department has new teachers. Last year Brian Vecchio taught all Athletic Conditioning classes, but this year Brandon DeMatto, Stuart Jeck and Gabbi Santos teach the class. “When you miss math, you don’t miss points for being absent, but you also get the opportunity to make up for that work, in our area of the world,” DeMatto said. “It doesn’t equate the same way. But this is our ability to translate that to a similar circumstance so that if you’re gone it doesn’t hurt you.” 

The make-up assignments consist of reading an article about sports of some kind and then answering questions about the article, such as who the author of the article was and what was the message of this article.

 The teachers think this will hold the students accountable and keep them from skipping class. This new policy has given a new incentive for students to stop skipping class. “The policy creates a little more accountability to be there,” DeMatto said.

The students believe that their math, science, social studies and English classes are a lot more important because they are harder. “In some ways, the gym is important for health beneficial reasons, but I don’t think there needs to be homework to do,” LeGere said.