Having a 4.0 grade-point average in high school was not good enough for one Churchill County High School senior.

The student was informed that because she failed to attend class 90 percent of the time as required in Churchill County School District Regulation R5119.1, she would receive a failing grade in all of her subjects.

"A students who has not met the 90 percent requirement shall receive a failing grade for the class or classes involved," the regulation reads.

At the high school, that would mean five absences in a subject.

Fallon resident Lois Snodgrass, who has a daughter who attends the high school and is a cousin of the student who has been told she will fail, is concerned about the policy.

"I really have a problem with it," she said, mentioning that of her eight children, four are enrolled in the Churchill County School District.

Snodgrass said she did not know about the policy until her 14-year-old daughter told her about it a few weeks ago.

"She came home saying she could not miss more than five days," she said. "It does make it difficult. Who can predict when they will get sick?"

CCHS Assistant Principal Shawn Purrell has said there are exceptions to the policy such as an extended illness or missing class due to a college visit.

The policy was adopted a few years ago but was rarely enforced. Purrell said last week that it could be reviewed or revised and mentioned there are some school districts that will let students regain the credit if no more absences are incurred for the rest of the semester and the following semester.

At the Oct. 25 school board meeting, he said there were about 80 students who were in violation of the attendance policy.

The junior high has a similar policy in place. It also has a 90 percent mandatory attendance rate, but since students attend the same classes every day, they can miss about nine days per semester.

Snodgrass wonders how parents would prove to the district that their child was sick, mentioning not all families have health insurance to visit physicians.

"I feel it's going to make it a lot harder," she said, adding that when one member of her family comes down with an illness, her other children often are exposed to the sickness.

She thinks this policy will convince students who are sick to go to school anyway, which could result in more students becoming ill.

"I don't want (my daughter) going to school if she got sick," she said, adding she would try to keep her at home until the illness passed.

If her high school daughter was to get sick, Snodgrass would make sure she was healthy before returning to school, even if that meant she would incur five absences from a class.

"I would take it to the school board," she said regarding what she would do if she or her daughter were ever told she was going to receive a failing grade for missing too many classes.

However, at the Oct. 25 school board meeting, Purrell said appeals would have to go through the Student Attendance Review Board, or SARB.

The purpose of SARB is to review appeals from students who have not met the minimum attendance requirements for their respective schools and to determine if exceptional circumstances exist.

The SARB membership would consist of one person from a community service program, one student, one non high school administrator, two high school teachers selected randomly from a pool of volunteers and one high school teacher selected by the high school principal.

Excused absences include those pre-arranged by a guardian or parent two days beforehand, medical, dental or legal appointments that can be verified, serious family emergencies as approved by the administration, personal illness with a doctor's note being required for lengthy illnesses, serious illness or death in the immediate family and exceptional circumstances determined by the administration.

Snodgrass wondered why the district would punish someone with a high grade-point average because of the number of days missed.

"It's the ones who are working to keep their grades up who are being punished for it," she said. "There are many reasons why a person can miss school."

High school students Adam Hjertstedt and Dakota Thompson said if they were ever told they were going to fail due to the number of absences, they would stop coming to class.

Thompson thought the policy was fair because students should be in school.

Hjertstedt disagreed with the policy because of the grades that had been earned.

High school student Trevor Giovanetti said five days is too low of a number.

"I think that's unfair. What if something happened to a family member? We need a few more days," he said.