The idea behind giving students prep periods is to provide them with sufficient time to balance academic and athletic commitments. Denying preps to certain student-athletes simply because they do not represent school sports teams is biased and unjustified.

Athletes who participate in club sports outside of school often dedicate the same, if not more, time to practices and games. By exercising rigorously and often, these students are already athletically fit. Forcing them to attend additional physical education classes simply wastes both the students’ time and their parents’ tax dollars.

The state of California wants students to participate in physical education classes, especially as the percentage of obese children continues to rise. However, if a student can consistently run a mile under six or seven minutes, it’s clear that he or she is not obese and should not be wasting the state’s money. Skipping classes isn’t even a new idea—students at Gunn can skip a level in math simply by taking a test. Can’t the same idea be applied to physical education?

Giving a prep period to these already healthy individuals is practical and realistic. However, in order to eliminate students who try to take advantage of this new practice, athletes should be required to present proper paperwork showing that they play for a legitimate sports team outside of school and to pass a fitness test.

Critics might point out that giving out preps to student-athletes who don’t participate in school sports could potentially weaken school sport teams, but this problem can be solved by limiting this policy to students who play sports that are either not offered or are currently not in season at Gunn.