Out of the many changes coming to the Cal High schedule next year, none is more baffling than the limitations placed on taking an A period.

Starting next year, students will only be allowed to take an A Period if they are in AVID, leadership, mock trial, band, choir, theatre, yearbook or newspaper, or if they are lacking credits needed for graduation.

The new policy is unfair to the students because it limits the amount of classes they can take.

This makes it harder for them to fulfill college requirements, take courses that will prepare them for college, and take the classes they really want.

Students use A periods to be able to take classes that aren’t required, but interest them.

With this extra period, they can meet graduation requirements and still take fun classes. It also allows for less rigid planning of a student’s schedule because with A period as an option, students can fulfill any missing requirements without having to sacrifice another class.

Because let’s face it, who really fills out the four-year personal class planner that you receive before entering high school?

The restrictions placed on A periods helps cut down on the number of teachers that are teaching an extra period, which in turn reduces how much the district has to pay teachers.

While the district has mentioned limiting students to only six periods to help overcrowding, Cal’s population hasn’t yet increased to the point where depriving students of an optional extra period would help with the growing class sizes.

The school has no right to take away students’ opportunity to enrich their learning, and allowing only certain students to have the chance to take an A period does just that.

The unfortunate fact about taking the possibility of a seventh period away from students is that is also eliminates their ability to prepare themselves for college.

If you’re planning on going into science but not necessarily a medical field, you probably want to take extra classes to prepare yourself for your major.

But what about the students who want to have fun senior year?

By denying them the use of an extra period to fill credit requirements in their first one or two years, they can’t take all of the electives that they want.

I for one would have loved to take culinary arts my senior year, but because I’m not taking one of the aforementioned classes approved for A periods, I won’t have the chance to take it.

I am not allowed an A period and I have other requirements I need to fulfill.

Allowing only certain students the chance to take an A period is frankly discriminatory.

How is it fair for the school to refuse me the option of an extra period just because I’m not interested in taking an CTE/ROP class?

Hint: it isn’t.