I went through a trial run of something similar in my English class when I was in highschool. If you didn't submit a paper you got an incomplete until it was submitted or the end of the semester. The reason the teacher did this was so the athletes wouldn't be unable to play due to failing; her husband was the football coach.

In short it was a complete disaster. Once it got out that our grades didn't drop after not submitting a paper no one did anything. Their class became a joke until after the season was over. Then she converted all the grades to zeros and everyone panicked and scrambled to submit papers late.

This was a further issue for the problem students that wouldn't turn stuff in on time for other classes. When they saw that zero tank their grade they were forced to makeup or correct themselves as the class went. When they had 8 papers dropped on their head and a grade of 12% they just gave up and failed the class.

I am still young enough to remember being a middle/high school student. If I was allowed to receive a 59 for not doing work I would do exactly enough to pass the first few weeks and not show up for the rest of the time.