Many students at LHS leave class early, sometimes missing whole days, in order to participate in school activities and sports. Students are missing classes and sacrificing their schooling for extracurricular activities. 

Sometimes missing class can have a negative impact on student learning. Many students who participate in extracurricular activities such as sports will often miss fourth and eighth periods at least once a week.

Matthew Price, a physics teacher, believes the consequences of missing class vary by the student´s work ethic as a teacher who teaches fourth and eighth periods. 

“How much it impacts depends on how effective they are at making up for what they missed,” he said. “But, it is clear that missing class means you miss some of the activities, meaning that you miss some of the content.”

Ultimately, the success of a student-athlete completely depends on their work ethic, and if they can handle having the weight of both school and sports on their shoulders.The majority of the student-athletes reported that they had no issues missing their easier classes, but when it came to missing science and Advanced Placement classes, it was harder. On other hand, the view of missing challenging classes varies by the student as some students like missing easier classes more than others.

Junior  Carlito Bryant Garcia plays golf.  

“I think it was more annoying just having to make up that work,” said Garcia.

On the other hand, some students enjoy missing challenging classes.

Finn Rolstad runs cross country and track and field. Both of these sports involve missing classes. Not only does he enjoy missing classes, but he finds that it “really gives [him] a nice break from school.” However, he told us that he does like not to miss science classes such as chemistry because the work is much harder to make up due to labs. He told us he was wondering about missing AP Chemistry which is the eighth period.

Unfortunately, the school does not take into account athletes missing school when putting school schedules together. Instead, they work with teacher schedules to avoid having to hire substitute teachers.

Colby Neil, Interim Associate Principal says that, “We do give some coaches that we know are going to be gone a lot for fourth and eighth period prep periods during those times.”