So glad it worked out. Sorry it was so much effort, especially in light of this inconsistency -
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All the while, the principal was letting other students drop classes without a failure with teacher recommendation.

I agree with the others that 5 days is very small window to drop a course without penalty. It seems that high schools would/could/should want to be encouraging "growth mindset" by supporting students to take on a challenge, rather than making it very high risk to take on a challenge.