Recently, Richmond Hill High School has undergone some changes. One change in particular has garnered the attention of students: the change in the Final Exemption Policy. For those unaware, the new protocol is that RHHS students are no longer allowed to exempt their finals when before they were able to if the had an A average in that class. This has caused outrage with most of the students I have seen.

Some teachers and administrators may say that allowing students to exempt their finals makes them lazy when that could not be further from the truth. After telling my classmates about the new policy, most have said the phrase, “so there’s no point in getting an A anymore” or “well, I guess there’s no point in trying so hard.” The removal of this policy is doing the opposite of what it aims to achieve. 

Yes, many students will still work hard to get A’s in their classes, but the finals will definitely bring down the grades of those trying to keep their’s up. For many, they aim to get A’s to avoid the final because they are not good with taking finals. Many students admit to not being good test takers, myself included. The removal of this policy hurts the mental well-being of the students, their grades, and their yearly work ethic. 

With every other student I’ve heard mention the removal of the policy have either said they don’t get good enough grades to exempt anyway or they don’t see a point in trying as hard as they did previously because they will not be rewarded for their efforts. 

I have not heard a single person happy about this policy. All I have seen is either anger, sadness, frustration, stress, anxiety, or any other variation of those listed. A member of the staff has even encouraged me to make this petition. I’ve heard in many instances where teachers do not even want to make finals. It only makes sense to reinstate this policy for the good of both the students and staff here at Richmond Hill High School.