Every student and teacher knows of the infamous “fail mail” that reaches a student’s parents email every time they receive a 69.4% or less on an assignment. All the students and teachers that I have spoken to about this have shared the same dislike of it.

There are truly no benefits to having the school send out mass emails to parents every single time their child has a failing assignment. 

This failed grade could easily come from a simple three-question assignment. Some parents will not understand that.  They will only see that their child has failed something in school, and unnecessary arguments can break out between them and their child. 

Other parents may take this to another extreme and begin to blame the teacher, not their child. This is where teachers also begin to experience irritation from “fail mail.” 

Many times, they receive angry emails from these stubborn parents, saying that their perfect child would never fail an assignment. They believe that it must be the teacher’s fault for incorrectly grading the assignment, and that the grade needs to be changed immediately. 

This results in teachers having to take time out of their day and respond to these pointless emails accusing them of such things and explain the actuality of the situation. After dealing with these emails time and time again, it begins to be understandable why teachers begin to feel agitated. 

While some of the failing assignment emails parents receive can be nearly insignificant to the child’s grade, there are, of course, other failed assignments that can very well severely impact a student’s grade. 

Parents have the right to know if their children are consistently getting failing grades so they can remind them the importance of keeping good grades in school. “It helps me see patterns if [the student fails] the same class week by week,” Principal Allen Leonard said. “It gives me a reason to really see where my student is on a [weekly] basis.” 

Notifying parents of their child’s failing grades can be very beneficial in some cases. However, sending the weekly “fail mail” even when the most insignificant grade is put in only causes unneeded discussions between parents, students, and teachers.  

“Fail mail” seems reasonable if the child consistently fails assignments in a certain class, but including every single assignment such as the ones that do not or barely affect a students’ grades creates problems, not solutions.

Opinions expressed in editorials are those of the writer(s).  These views may not represent the adviser, The Prowler, advertisers/sponsors, the Starr’s Mill High School administration or staff , or Fayette County Public Schools as a whole.  Please see our FAQs for more information pertaining to the rights of The Prowler’s staff members.