On Fridays, students of Mansfield Frontier High School are required to sign up for a club during advisory time (10:00-10:35 A.M.) on flextimemanager.com. If they fail to do so, for many reasons, they will see punishment such as detention, or even AC. This creates an unnecessary risk for an unnecessary policy—students can lose their final exam exemptions over an issue as trivial as this. This petition aims to change the standard for club attendance on fridays to an optional event, meaning students that forget to attend or simply do not wish to attend a club do not see scrutiny, alienation, and mistreatment for this victimless offense, and instead can spend their advisory time in the commons doing homework or studying like every other day of the week. Forced attendance is not only unnecessary, but is also detrimental. This pressure has the potential to make students feel unnecessarily punished, which could cause unhealthy habits, such as skipping entirely. Students that are more introverted or are not interested by any of the club topics may feel a sense of helplessness or lack of individuality—for they feel that their interests, requests, and priorities don’t matter.

There is no reason for a club to be mandatory if it is simply a gathering of fellow students with common interests. If optional, the club can be more concentrated with students who actually care for the subject of the club, leading to more productivity and enjoyment. On the contrary, students can accomplish more schoolwork and studying if they’re allowed to spend their time in the commons like a normal weekday advisory. 

In conclusion, the policy of mandatory club attendance is unethical to the school-wide dynamic, oppressive of student individuality, hindering on potential acedemic productivity, and downright contradictory of the core foundation of Frontier High School/Ben Barber — to give the students the freedom to choose.