CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – A student at Northwest High School started a petition this week calling for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System to not count students’ grades for the third quarter this school year on account of issues with remote learning.

The change.org petition, called “Save Students Futures and Not Count N3 Grades for CMCSS schools,” was started on Tuesday evening by Aiden Carter, a 17-year-old junior who plays offensive and defensive line for the Northwest Vikings football team.

By Thursday, the petition had garnered over 3,500 signatures.

The petition

The petition cites several reasons to cancel the grades. This includes the mental and emotional side effects of isolation, ongoing Wi-Fi connectivity issues affecting attendance, and the learning styles of some students who don’t perform well remotely.

“I made the petition with a couple of friends not knowing it would be like this. We thought like maybe 25 or 50 people would sign it, but then it turned into this big ordeal,” Carter said.

CMCSS operates on the quarter schedule, or “nine weeks” as they refer to it. There are 45 instructional days in each quarter; the third quarter began Jan. 4 and ends March 14.

The petition alleges that this entire period has been completed virtually. CMCSS said that’s obviously not the case, and 7th through 12th grade traditional students are set to return to in-person learning on Monday, Feb. 8. Pre-K through 6th grades returned to in-person learning Jan. 25,

In the details of the petition, Carter writes, “If the district really wants what’s in the best interest of their students they should start by making it possible to give us the opportunity to have a future and we can’t get that if we have these constant issues.”

Individual struggles

“I had around all A’s and B’s in the first nine weeks of the school year, and then as soon as the second (nine weeks) started, I hurt myself at practice and I broke my ankle and I tore my ligaments. I’ve been out (of school) ever since October,” Carter said.

Since the injury required major surgery, Carter hasn’t been in school. He told Clarksville Now that this wasn’t the reason behind the petition, though, and he added it was not about him, and was made for others who are in similar positions.

“Everyone thought I made the petition about myself, and I don’t understand where that really came from, but I made it because of how many people I’ve talked to that have the same struggles as me. I have three or four (doctor’s) appointments a week, and then on top of that, I have constant Wi-Fi issues at home so I can’t always join classes,” Carter said.

CMCSS’s Chief Communications Officer Anthony Johnson said this is not the case for everyone.

“Teachers, administrators and other staff have been reaching out to families of students in these situations and providing remedies. It is important to note that daily attendance during remote learning days has averaged around 90% to 95%. Even in a typical school year with in-person learning, the daily absence rate averages around 3% to 5%,” Johnson said.

Carter added that he feels the mental side effects of having to do school work all day long goes unseen by teachers and the administration.

“It feels like they just pile on a whole bunch of work, and they don’t really take into account how we’re feeling outside of school work. We spend almost 10 hours a day trying to do school work, and some people have heavy Wi-Fi issues or they have a lot more going on at home that teachers really don’t take into account,” Carter said.

Backlash

The petition has been met with mixed reactions. Some find themselves in the same boat as Carter, and their grades have suffered since the district went remote in December.

Other students are successful learning remotely, and Carter has faced some backlash as a result of his call to cancel grades.

“I know not everybody is struggling, because most of the backlash is coming from those who aren’t struggling, and I understand where they are coming from. But I think the petition shows that there are a lot more students struggling than they are succeeding right now,” Carter said.

To help make up for the anticipated learning loss, CMCSS said it is coming up with solutions.

“The district is finalizing plans for various summer programs to address learning loss as a part of its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund Recovery Plan,” Johnson said.

Carter points out that there’s precedent for canceling a nine-week period of grades.

“I just want (CMCSS) to show that they’re more understanding or that they get where we are coming from because last year, we had COVID and they voided all of the fourth nine weeks grades. That was because we didn’t really know how to go into virtual, and we still don’t know how to go into virtual. Some people can but most people can’t do it,” Carter said.

Johnson said the circumstances of the move to cancel the grades last year were completely different.

“CMCSS did not provide direct instruction to students from mid-March through the end of the 2019-2020 school year and instead was providing weekly learning packets, digital resources, and regular phone calls from teachers to families to keep students engaged,” Johnson said. “Of course, that is not the case this year as we are providing daily instruction.”