Gaither dancers kept home days by a mystery illness want the same break on finals those with perfect attendance get.
By LOGAN MABE
Published December 9, 2003
TAMPA - Jennifer Noah, ranked 11th in her senior class at Gaither High School, estimates she's missed no more than two days of school in her 31/2 years there.
"My sophomore year I went to school with like a 105-degree fever," Noah said.
Why the strict devotion?
The Hillsborough school district allows students with perfect attendance to avoid taking exams in three classes each semester. The policy boosts attendance figures, which translates into dollars for a school. And it encourages top students to take more challenging classes.
It certainly helped Noah decide to take three advanced placement classes and a two-period calculus class.
Noah had planned on exempting herself from most exams in those classes this semester - and gutting out any illnesses that didn't require hospitalization - with the goal of increasing her already impressive grade point average.
But Noah did get sick, very sick. Co-captain of the school's Starettes dance troupe, Noah was one of 14 Gaither students to develop a mysterious and debilitating breathing disorder that forced her to miss four days of classes.
So far, school officials have refused to budge on the attendance policy, even though many of the students' parents believe their children got sick because of something at the school.
"To me, that has been the most frustrating," said Noah's mother, Karen Noah. "We know that we'll never find out what the problem was, whether it's the school that caused the problem or not. But the issue I keep bringing up is that eight of the girls on the squad got it and if Jennifer was not a member of the dance team, what would be the odds of her getting it?"
Physically, all the girls who developed the harsh, raspy breathing disorder are improving. But psychologically, they are stressed by the prospect of a full week of exams that they might have avoided.
Most rankling is that many of the girls stayed out of school voluntarily, afraid their condition might be contagious.
"When we met with (Gaither principal Ken) Adum in September and all these kids were dropping like flies, we didn't know what was going on," said Caroline North, whose daughter Katie was one of the affected Starettes.
"He suggested keeping them home. We didn't know whether they were contagious, or whether it was a virus going around. It was the unknown. We kept our kids home for the safety of the population at Gaither High School. That said, these kids are deserving of a break."
While the attendance policy encourages sick students to come to school, parents and teachers have come to live with its immutable rules.
"The parents of the really high achievers who want to go to school with a high fever need to intervene and use some judgment," said Yvonne Lyons, head of the Hillsborough County Classroom Teachers Association, which does not oppose the policy. "But there are many households where, with any little excuse, a child will stay at home. So this is to encourage those students. You don't learn when you're not there."
In 2000, Pinellas County eliminated its policy of exam exemptions based on high grades and few absences and replaced it with a set of "exam requirements."
Currently, students with a B or better are not required to take all of their finals. But students with more than 10 absences per semester on a six-period schedule or five absences per quarter on a block schedule must take exams regardless of their grades.
Cathy Valdes, director of Hillsborough schools Area 3, said district officials are still considering the students' appeal to have their absences categorized as "school business," which would allow them to skip the exams.
At a meeting Friday, Valdes said such a move would be precedent-setting and could result in a landslide of similar requests from other students who have had hardships resulting in absences.
"We're working on it,' Valdes said. "It's going to have to be soon. An administrator will speak directly with each individual student and each individual parent."
Gaither students will begin today selecting the classes in which they want to avoid exams.
- Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report. Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 813 226-3464 or at mabe@sptimes.com
