After missing a day in P.E., teachers require that students do P.E. make-ups in the weight room to earn the missed points back. However, the current policy is not fair for students, and teachers should make P.E. make-ups easier to complete.

            According to the Lake Zurich High School Physical Education Expectations document, the current policy states “PE make-ups will be held each day in the Fitness Center . . . from 6:00-7:00am and 3:20-4:00pm. Only one make-up can be performed per make up session . . . There will be no PE make-ups during the school day. You have two weeks from the date of your absence to make it up otherwise it will be put in the grade book as a zero for that day!”

            For some students, there is not a problem with these rules; however, for others, the rules make P.E. make-ups near impossible to complete, and the students have to lose ten points from their grades.

            If the student is involved in extracurricular activities, such as clubs, sports, or a job, then the student is busy before and after school. Even if they are not busy every day, it is difficult to find multiple open days to dedicate to P.E. make-ups if a student misses several days of school. However, most of these students would be able to find one day after school where they can finish multiple make-ups at once. They do not have to worry about having to miss another activity because they have to do a make-up.

            “Well there’s a couple reasons [why there cannot be multiple make-ups]. One is we want to give everyone a fair shot at it. Usually when we do P.E. make-ups, there’s a lot of people who go up at the same time because of a fieldtrip or something,” Randall Dunbar, P.E. teacher, said.

            Although the weight room can become crowded, it is unfair to several students to force them to come before or stay after school multiple days, and there will still be many students in the weight room who are only doing one P.E. make-up at a time.

 Some athletes have P.E. exemptions; however, those are only available to juniors and seniors on IHSA sports, which exclude club sports such as swimming and lacrosse. Freshmen and sophomores are not eligible for any exemption, and juniors and seniors in club sports cannot have a P.E. exemption, but all of these athletes are still required to attend practice after school each day and dedicate effort to their sport.

            These athletes cannot miss a practice or game after school to do a P.E. make-up, and it is not fair to force those athletes to do a make-up in the morning because multiple workouts in one day would mean the athlete would not have as much energy to dedicate to their sport and represent their school.

            “Who wants to get up in the morning at six am to either bike six miles or run two and a half when you’re already working out after school for a sport. It doesn’t make any sense, and you’d just be so tired,” Rachel Corrigan, freshman, said.

            Even if a student is not an athlete, they do not want to have to come to the weight room after school three different days when it would be significantly easier to do all of his or her P.E. make-ups on one day.

            Any student who does not drive to school might not be able to find a ride to school early in the morning or a ride home after school. If students rely on the bus for transportation, it would be difficult to find people to be willing to give rides either before or after normal school hours multiple days just to improve a P.E. grade.

            Another possible solution to help students who are busy before and after school or have trouble finding rides is to allow for P.E. make-ups to be done during the school day in a lunch, study hall, or open period.

            “I know you can’t get into the locker room after school, so its hard to find a place to change so that makes it even harder to go and do [a P.E. make-up]. You have to go find a bathroom that’s crowded with sports people changing. And all your stuff, like your gym shoes, are in the locker room, and I don’t want to bring another pair of shoes to school just to do a P.E. make-up. We should be able to do it during school hours so we can get to our gym stuff in our gym lockers,” Maddie Currie, freshman, said. “And my parents both work until six, so I have to find someone else to drive me home, which can be difficult.”

            If it were possible to do multiple P.E. make-ups at one time or to complete them during the school day, it would be more efficient and more convenient for a majority of students. However, according to Dunbar, doing P.E. make-ups during the day creates a liability issue. A P.E. teacher cannot watch over the students doing a P.E. make-up while they are supposed to be watching their own class.

            However, a solution to the liability issue would be to designate a P.E. teacher to the weight room each period. The Mathematics and Science departments do this with the MRC, and the English department does this in the writing center, so there should not be an issue with implementing this into the P.E. department.

            Although making P.E. make-ups more convenient would require change and a willing attitude from the P.E. department, it would benefit many students at LZHS. After all, without change, there can be no progress.