By Maddy Baxter and Eli Haims
Seventy-one upper school students who failed to complete their community service by the May 2 deadline still hadn’t fulfilled the requirement by May 18, Head of Community Council Gaby Cohen ’11 said. Of the 71, 16 were seniors, 33 were juniors and 22 were sophomores.
The Community Council extended the service deadline to May 23 in an effort to give students who did not fulfill their service requirement time to participate in an event that would allow them to.
Students who complete their community service before May 23 will not be subject to punishment.
As a punishment for not completing the service requirement before the extended May 23 deadline, students will have to complete double the requirement.
Instead of doing a half day of hands-on service with at least three other members of the community, they will now have to complete eight hours of service with the same conditions.
Additionally, Assistant to the Head of Upper School Michelle Bracken will not allow sophomores and juniors to register for the 2011-2012 school year and get their books next year until they complete their service.
Seniors who do not complete their service by graduation will not officially matriculate and their transcripts will not be sent to colleges at the end of the school year.
They will be allowed to walk at graduation but will receive a blank diploma holder.
To encourage stduents to complete the requirement, the Community Council hosted four events on the last weekend prior to the May 23 deadline.
Students participated in packing and handing out lunches to the homeless at the Ocean Park Community Center, making care packages for soldiers with Operation Gratitude, helping the Scene Monkeys at Activities for Retarded Children and a gardening event at Los Angeles Family Housing.
All four events were filled to their maximum capacity, according to an email sent to students from the Community Council.
A record-breaking 96 students attended the Operation Gratitude event on April 30 at the United States National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, Head of Community Council Daniel Rothberg ’11 said.
The mass participation was the largest in Community Council history and surpassed attendance earlier this year, which had never reached 20 students at previous events.
“The record-high attendance can largely be attributed to the impending Community Service deadline,” said Jessica Barzilay ’12, one of two Community Council liaisons to the event.
Since the May 2 deadline has passed, Community Council will not organize any more events for the students who have not completed their service.
