Dear Principal:

I can understand that getting a B average is an outstanding achievement and those who are successful should be rewarded and those who fail in the process should be punished, but not allowing students with below a B average to participate in school sports is not a good idea. School sports is a place where you can go cheer on your school. I love going to the track meets because you feel like your cheers are helping everyone else out, where as if your in school, generally, you are powerless - or you feel that way.

You must put into perspective that if you cut the school sports, students won't be able to support their team as they used to, so another way to have school spirit would be necessary. Their enthusiasm will disappear and, for some people, school won't be fun. That is definitely not the message you want to send to pupils. In addition, school sports transports players to all of their games. For some people whose parents/guardians don't have cars, school sports are the only athletic team they can participate in and barring them from sport activities because of their grades would be unfair to them.

Another idea is to, instead of telling students all at once about your idea with grades and school sports, try taking smaller steps toward B averages.

If you must punish and congratulate students based on there grades, have spectators banned from all sporting events without a B average and every morning they must go to study hall instead of walking around the halls before first period. Same with players: if they don't have a B average, then they must go to a study hall before class until they get a B average but still be able to be on the team. Encourage during lunch periods that morning tutoring is available for any student who needs help or extra time to finish homework.

I would appreciate it if you didn't just punish the students. You should talk to teachers and remind them about students they have whose grades are lower than a B average, because in some cases, it's not the students. Sometimes it's the teacher's fault for not communicating with his or her students in a positive or effective manner.

I hope you keep all these reasons in mind to not cut school teammates because of their grades.

Sincerely,

Your student