It wasn’t too long ago that six world languages were offered at Garfield. This year, there are only four, and it turns out this number will diminish even further. French will not be offered to students next year. While this loss has upset many, nowhere are its effects more visible than in the eyes of Madame Rippe.

A week before spring break, and on the day of a school budget meeting, Rippe was dealt a harsh blow. Without any inkling of a forewarning, Garfield’s sole French teacher learned that the French program was being cut from the Garfield budget for the coming year.

“I was just blown away,” she says. “I was literally blindsided by the news.”

As it turns out, a budget committee, composed of Garfield staff, parents, and school board members, had to figure out a way to cut 500,000 dollars worth of programs from Garfield. They made suggestions to Garfield’s BLT (Building Leadership Team, not sandwich), which then proposed a plan to the staff. And French ended up on the chopping block.

Many are shocked that Garfield did not decide to cut back on the Spanish program, which has four teachers, instead of taking away the French program in its entirety. But counselor Ken Courtney, a member of the budget committee, explains that they needed to cut a whole program, not a segment of a program, and that French was chosen because it is the only language not to offer four different levels.

Now the school must approach the dilemma of what to do with the 150 kids who were signed up for Rippe’s classes next year. The Spanish, Japanese and Latin programs will not expand to absorb these stranded students.

“My recommendation for students that have started French and want to continue French is to take it at community college through Running Start,” says Mr. Courtney.

But Rippe points out that this could lead to scheduling problems.

“I’ve never seen a greater disservice done to students in my life,” she says.

Students haven’t hesitated to speak up. “Save French” posters have appeared around the building, and some students have even written to the superintendent.

“I’m often given the impression that it’s all falling on deaf ears,” says Rippe.

Another person upset with the decision is Mr. Simmons, the French teacher at Washington Middle School. According to Rippe, he is vehement that an absence of a French program at Garfield will detract from his French program at Washington. Fewer students will begin a language they can only take for two years.

Rippe has been teaching French at Garfield for longer than any other teacher in the world language department. She will still be offered a position as an English teacher here, but even if she does accept, it won’t be the same.

“I teach English well, but I don’t teach it with the same passion I have for French,” she says, “French is different.”

She plans to look for a position as a French teacher elsewhere in the district, but this would mean abandoning her family and home of her last 12 years: Garfield.

“I would just miss my students,” she says. “I grow really attached to them. I feel like this school has a unique chemistry of kids too, unlike any school I’ve ever taught at. Garfield’s got a certain uniqueness that I don’t think you’ll find anywhere.”

Rippe certainly has a collection of favorite memories from teaching French at Garfield. She smiles as she recalls the time in her third-year French class when multiple students memorized the dedication by Leon Vert at the beginning of The Little Prince for extra credit.

“That nearly made me cry,” she says, “Never in any year have I ever had that many kids do the dedicas.”

And she has made a profound impact on her students as well.

“I used to joke about [French class] being the torture chamber and Ryan Rautureau said, ‘Rippe, this is the tightest class at Garfield,’” she says.

Senior Neil Eddington feels the same way.

“[A few weeks ago] I could not handle school and my first 3 classes were just killing me,” he says. “I wanted to leave as soon as I got to school, but every day I was like, ‘Nope, just gotta make it to French and my day will be good.’”

While Rippe and her current students are still not positive about their plans of action for the coming year, protests against the decision continue.

“I’m just hoping something’s going to turn around,” says Rippe.