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Skipped Gym Class Costs Student Diploma

Posted on: Sunday, 8 May 2005, 21:00 CDT

BOW, N.H. - 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."

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Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.theunionleader.com

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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