Goodbye, single-sex PE. Hello, co-ed.

For the first time on campus, PE classes are integrated, with boys and girls running laps, lifting weights and playing games together in the same period.

“I’m used to having a girls’ only gym class,” freshman Willow Riscar said. “I feel like there has to be more discipline because having girls and boys together is more confusing.”

Title IX laws that require gender-equality were the catalyst for the change this year. One challenge with the change is for gym teachers who can’t monitor both genders when dressing out.

“It’s different because I can’t go into the guy’s locker room,” PE coach Lindsey Williams said. “If there is a problem, I can’t stop it.”

The co-ed classes are a stark contrast from the all-girls and all-boys classes of the past, especially for freshmen who had gender-specific PE classes throughout middle school and in some cases, elementary as well.

“It is different from middle school,” freshman Philip Lecaros said.  “There is definitely more diversity in my class.”