Due to inclimate weather schools in the St. Louis area have been closed both Monday, December 16th, and Tuesday, December 17th. The student body along with many parents have made their concerns about their kids' stress and anxiety levels being extremely high to multiple Ritenour officials. The only change that has been made is: Wednesday, December 18th, being turned into a review day. This has cause all our finals to be placed into 2 days. 

Us the students, and our parents disagree with the change that has been made and have found a solution that most of our community schools have found as well. Entering finals if they only affect the students' grades positively removes stress, anxiety, and improves: confidence, sleep hours, mood, and outlook on the upcoming break. Without those things being stabilized, our exam scores will not truly reflect the abilities of our school or our students, and not even close to how well our teachers have taught us. This adds additional stress to teachers just as well as students. Our teachers work very hard to create the study guides for us, and to review everything with us before our exams. Not only that but also having to grade all of them along with all the exams within two days. This is quite a unique circumstance, and it requires unique changes. 

Schools in the St. Louis area such as:

Hazelwood School District

Wentzville School District

Fort Zumwalt School District

Montgomery County Schools

And many more have already made this change!

I personally have heard multiple students, including my own friends, posting on social media platforms how scared they are that they won't be able to pass their finals due to not having enough time to study. Over all of my social medias I've recieved texts like: "I can't wait to move, this school doesn't care", "Do they just want everyone to fail?", "This school is whack", "I can't do this. Why do they expect us to do this. I might as well just not show up and take the 0", and so much more. Our school struggles with attendance and we have been battling it all year, we don't want our student body thinking that the school doesn't care.

We have not been given the correct tools to completely study for our finals, and having just one evening to cram as much information into our heads as we can is not a stable way to study and succeed. Most teachers have not had the chance to review with their classes, as they planned to do so Monday and Tuesday, December 16-17th. This leaves students clueless and scared. I personally have only received 1 study guide out of all 7 of my classes. This will drastically reduce test scores and averages for the district. Our districts motto is: "Educational Excellence since 1867". Help us prove that. Placing this weight on our shoulders are making people give up instead of try harder. That does not reflect our motto nor the effort that has been put into the school every years since 1867.

If you are a parent, student, faculty member, community member, or anyone involved in the Ritenour School District, please take these words into mind and help us stand up for what we need. Sign the petition and help us make a change for success. Help the pack keep up it's pride! Thank you.