By Jaelyn Anderson, Assistant Business Manager
With droplets of sweat on her forehead Sierra ran on the gym court trying to catch the basketball before it hit the ground. “I hate this class, “ Sierra said as the ball rolled on the ground away from the court and she ran towards it.
Sierra Lance, a junior at Loy Norrix High School is taking Ted Duckett’s gym class 5th hour. She is taking the class because the credit is required for graduation. All KPS students are required to have at least 0.5 physical education credits to graduate.
Students shouldn’t be required to take gym classes in order to graduate because they do more harm than they do good. Some students are bullied in gym classes. Student’s also don’t enjoy gym classes because they don’t enjoy sports or they feel like physical activity is unnecessary.
“Gym class, they’re making it a place to practice sports,” Sierra said, “and they don’t say it out loud, but I feel like they’re just getting us ready to put us into a sport. What if that’s not a sport I want to learn?”
It’s true that gym classes are beneficial to some students. The class helps them either lose weight or stay in shape.
“I feel that having a gym class is helpful.” freshman J’viohn Sirrine said, “It gives students the necessary movement they need to get through the day.”
However those students should be able to just chose to take the class themselves instead of requiring all students to take a gym class.
“Forced gym has been shown to make kids dislike exercise more than no gym at all,” said Penelope Trunk in the article “Forced Gym Makes Kids Hate Exercise.”
For the majority of students, gym classes don’t help them feel better. It can make them feel worse both emotionally and physically.
“Right now we have people in here who don’t know how to play basketball,” Sierra said “They can’t shoot, they can’t jump, they can’t run, and [other students] feel they need to make fun of them.”
Students are sometimes bullied in gym classes because they aren’t the best at sports or because they aren’t the most physical people.
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center on Educational Statistics noted that at least 13.5 million episodes of bullying were reported in gym classes.
Having required gym classes are overall doing more harm to students than they do good. KPS should change the requirement for graduation so you don’t need  physical education credits to graduate.