UPDATE:
My son went through about 2 ft pile of papers, notes and books on top of his desk to look for his syllabus for the class. He couldn’t find it, but one of his classmates (with much better organizational skills than my son!) found it and shared it with him. It only stated how critical class participation is and that there’s no makeup for any missed classes and the class participation is worth 60% of the grade. No specific policy regarding missed classes due to school sanctioned activities or due to taking IB and AP exams, i.e., missed classes are missed classes no matter the reason.
Although his final exam was yesterday, the final grade was posted later in the evening. Apparently, when my son protested the issue with the teacher shortly before the final exam, the teacher “promised” that he would not get A- or even B+ as the final grade. Now, this “promise” just added to our confusion as to what her real policies are with the class grading. Everything seemed so arbitrary and what suits her whim. In spite of our skepticism regarding her “promise,” my son indeed ended up with his final grade of A to our great relief. Just by the point system, he should have received A-, but she did keep her promise.
The final grade was beside the point, though. I just don’t understand the logic behind deducting points for both the school sanctioned activities and especially for being absent because of IB and AP exams. Obviously, we’re not going to see anyone above her now to protest her method of grading as it’d be a strange thing to do for a student who secured A for the final grade. We also don’t want to antagonize the teacher who happened to have liked my son throughout the semester, but I still don’t approve of her course policies.