Prospective Cheerleader’s Parents Fail to Win Her Exemption From ‘No F’ Rule

After meeting behind closed doors for five hours, Irvine school officials refused to make an exception for a Woodbridge High School junior who has been banned from the cheerleading squad because she failed chemistry last semester, officials said Friday.

Melissa Fontes, 16, who has been the co-captain of the varsity cheerleading squad for the past two years, will not be allowed to audition for next semester’s squad with the rest of the cheerleading hopefuls April 23.

The Irvine Unified School District Board of Trustees decided late Thursday night that Woodbridge’s “no F’s” rule, which disqualifies students from the pep squad who receive a failing grade, was “consistent with . . . the primary purpose of school--classroom learning,” according to a press release issued Friday.

The board, however, agreed to review district requirements for athletics and other extracurricular activities, which are not governed by the “no F’s” rule, at its public meeting May 1.

Melissa’s mother, Patricia Passy, had petitioned the board Tuesday, claiming the rule is discriminatory. Students in no other extracurricular activity, including athletics, student council or band, are required to abide by it, she argued.

In response, the school board postponed auditions for the Woodbridge High School pep squad originally scheduled for last Wednesday.

Passy and Melissa, along with Passy’s husband, Victor, and a friend of Melissa’s appeared before the board Thursday and made a 75-minute plea for an exception to be made. Patricia Passy said she believes her daughter should not have been in the chemistry class in the first place since she had not taken the proper prerequisite mathematics classes.

Passy said the school and its advisers were negligent in allowing her daughter to take the class and said she plans on pursuing that issue.

“This is not over,” Passy vowed in an interview Friday. “The issues of incompetence and negligence have not been addressed. Aren’t there any checks and balances in the system?”

She also challenged Woodbridge High School Principal Greg Cops’ assurance that all students who are failing are given avenues for help.

“The teacher did not interface with Melissa when she was failing, when her grades were dropping from a C to a D to an F. He didn’t do anything,” Passy said. “Nor did she receive any referrals for tutoring. What was this teacher doing?”

Cops could not be reached for comment.

According to Passy, Melissa has a 2.9 grade-point average--almost a B average--with the F in chemistry factored in.

The district policy states that all athletes must maintain at least a 2.0, or C, average each semester, district Supt. David Brown said. An F will not disqualify an athlete as long as the student’s overall average is at least 2.0, he said.

However, the district has no policy for pep squads, leaving it up to the schools to set standards, officials said. At University and Woodbridge high schools, members of the pep squad must maintain a grade-point average of at least 2.5, while the standard is 2.0 at Irvine High School. At Woodbridge, they also must provide five letters of recommendation from teachers.

“The rationale has been that for sports, it’s a seasonal, not a yearlong commitment,” board Trustee Margie Wakeham said. “In regards to other extracurricular activities, they’re not as time-consuming. . . . (The ‘no F’s’ rule) is not an arbitrary thing. There’s a reason for it. People don’t do things like this to punish kids.”

Several parents who had gathered outside the district board room Thursday night welcomed the board’s decision. The “no F’s” rule has been in existence for 10 years and should be respected until it is changed, they said.

The board’s decision “was the fair thing to do,” said Peter Jacobs, whose daughter, Christi, 16, is a former cheerleader who will audition again.

“Maybe the policy should be brought into line with the sports policy, or maybe sports should be upgraded to the pep squad policy. But changing policy in midstream like this would have been a mistake,” Jacobs said.

Jerry Rayl, assistant to the superintendent, said the issue had prompted about 100 phone calls to the district.