Last year at BHS the administration chose to only give club time once a month, instead of giving it to us every week. That is only if we got lucky, as this topic has become a large debate amongst those at BHS. Students are in outrage over the inability to participate in their favorite clubs regularly, and the staff are frustrated while trying to maintain order during this allotted time.
Club time is crucial to students who would like to be able to participate in clubs without having to sacrifice sports or work. A quote from BHS student Rajeev reveals that “[club time] is important due to two reasons: It enables students to not lose their own time, leading to less of a time commitment, and it’s also vital for students who are unable to participate in clubs due to a lack of transportation after clubs.” This is a shared sentiment between many students here at BHS. As students we have too little time and too much to do. This is why club time is so important. Not only does it enable students to be able to find and participate in clubs, those who choose to stay behind get time to work on assignments to get ahead of the demand. Rajeev is not the only student with this opinion either, as student Lexi Browning says “[club time] is important because it allows students to explore and meet new people, especially for those who do sports.” I would like to emphasize the point about sports. Anyone who does a sport either at BHS or outside of school understands that you lose so much time to these sports. These students who not only have sports to worry about, but possibly jobs and other commitments, shouldn’t feel as if they have no opportunity to contribute to our wonderful community.
But there is a caveat to these points, and the reason why our clubtime has been restricted in the first place. There were students who chose to take advantage of these opportunities, who then went on to break school policy at a rate that was uncontrollable for staff. So how do we curb this and keep our club time? Even with the passes there’s no guarantee that students will actually make their way to clubs. The only way to control this is by keeping a strict database of who makes it to clubs and who doesn’t. This could be paired with a system like PAWS, which was a system that ended after my freshman year that allowed students with a certain grade to be able to leave 15 minutes early on block days! Teachers should collect the names of those who leave and hand it over to administration, though these are merely suggestions without considering the restrictions.
Clubtime is a crucial part of our community here at Bothell High School. Some students at our school rely on clubtime to be able to explore communities. We should find a way to reinstate club time weekly, which has the potential to boost student morale and create a better incentive for students to behave and improve grades.
