Meagan Gaydos, senior, and Lauren Gergens, Charlotte Hennessey, and Jackie Hester, freshmen, express their feelings about PE. Photo by Edward FahmanBy Cecilia Nguyen, Staff Writer
For many years, Fountain Valley High School dance, cheer and band members have been required to take one semester of physical education (PE) in addition to their activity.
This obligation caused confusion to arise among students, who initially assumed that it was because the school didn’t recognize their activities as sports.
However, FVHS recognizes the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) certified sports, as do the rest of the high schools in the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD), Assistant Principal of Guidance, Nancy Peterson said.
Students in band remain discontent that band only meets one semester of the PE requirement for the year. On a weekly schedule, they have practice everyday during fourth period, three and a half hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, nine hours on Saturday and extra practice on Friday if there are games.
“I feel like we shouldn’t [have to take PE] because we do a lot of running and stuff, but it’s a different type of fitness that we do,” said band member Megan Gaydos (’16).
According to the state law, all freshmen must take one full year of PE to take the fitness exam. As explained by Peterson, dance, cheer and band count as PE for only the first semester because the second semester counts towards their performing arts credit. In order to fulfill the requirement of freshmen taking one consecutive year of PE, dance, cheer and band must enroll in a regular PE class for the second semester.
Captain of the Jazz/Lyrical Dance Team, Anna Loeffelmen (’16), said, “In PE we did probably the same amount of exercising as we do at dance, so it’s like we should just count it [as a sport] instead of doing both.”
Along with the regular hours of practice of each extracurricular activity, the students felt that adding PE to their schedule made them more fatigued and more difficult to complete homework or get enough hours of sleep.
“You have to have so much strength to really just get through one [dance] class…I think [PE] will make me a lot more tired than I already am and…it’ll affect my classes since I’m tired,” said hip hop and varsity jazz/lyrical dancer Jackie Hester (’19).
However, though band, cheer and dance students are required to take PE, their sport covers more than just the PE graduation requisite. If continued for four years, dancers, cheerleaders and band members would be able to complete not only their PE credits, but performing arts credits and elective credits needed to graduate as well.
“I think it’s fair that they get half a credit of PE and performing arts because [cheer/dance] is both,” said Jazz/Lyrical Dance Coach and Pepster Director Tara Bearden. “We are both. We are athletes and we’re artists so it’s fair that they get both.”
