Contesting an F

Well, I knew this would happen!

I have a student who is contesting his F in my class for Biology last semester. This is a student who was fully aware that 33% of his grade comes from his homework, 33% of his grade comes from lab work, and 34% of his grade comes from his exams. This means you cannot pass the class by doing nothing and only passing tests.

He is a really bright kid, just extremely lazy. He would come in to class, put his head down and do NOTHING all semester long. Now I have had interventions with this kid. I have pulled him aside out of class and spoken to him about the dangers of not doing anything in class and failing to pay attention. I have spoken to him about the quality of work he has given me. I have written him notes on his assignments and his lab notebook about the quality of work he has not given me. Did he listen to me?.....NO!

For the final review, I basically GAVE the students the answers. I printed out a review sheet with all the questions on it for the final and went over it in class! What the heck?! (why was my class average so low?) He did score an 80% on the final, but all that means is that for those 2 days, he actually paid attention. It means he slacked off for an entire SEMESTER with the exception of the 2 review days and still expects to pass my class?

So, last week he came in to my room in the middle of the school day and asked me, "Why did I fail? I thought the final was pretty easy." Exactly. The final was easy because you thought by passing the final, you could pass the class. I told him he needed to speak to his counselor. What a mistake that was.

Low and behold, at the end of the day - my science department head walks in to my room. She asked me what was going on with this situation. I printed out his grades for her and explained what happened. She basically asked me if I would be willing to "bump him up." Now she did not tell me I had to, but she did ask. I believe it was worded something like, "Do you feel he would benefit from sitting in this class for another semester?" My response? "No. He knows this stuff, he is just too lazy to do it."

Luckily for me, I had the student's work samples and his lab notebook. I gathered everything together and walked down to the counselor's office (3 x's because she wasn't there the first 2 times). I sat in her office and explained the situation.

She told me, "Well, I have worked with gifted children the entire time I was teaching and gifted students are not lazy, they are undisciplined." I thought about that for a moment as my blood began to boil. Undisciplined? Where the heck did that come from? I did discipline him. His discipline is his failing grade. His chances not to fail came every time I pulled him out of class and talked to him about the consequences of his choices. What do you mean undisciplined? Where did I go wrong here?

I told her, "Well, I disagree." I proceeded to reiterate all my points of argument to her and what could have been two colleagues working together to figure out a solution turned in to me getting majorly irritated and walking out of her office saying; "Have a nice weekend, I still believe he is lazy." as I left.

I told the counselor that if he would speak to me with a parent/guardian present, and could offer a good explanation as to why he deserved to pass, I would consider bumping him from a 55.5% (an F) in my class to a 60.0% (a D- still passing). Still haven't heard from the counselor or the student.