[Edit 1: One of our first goals is information—the student body was not informed of this change in any way. Because of this, the information that we have gathered reflects the information the student body has access to, which might be different than the actual situation or goals of GSMST admin.]

[Edit 2: Mr. Bray emailed me about this petition and clarified that these clubs will be part of the wellness phases described on GSMST’s eClass page. I will be meeting with him tomorrow (8/26) and I will update this petition after the meeting to reflect further information.]

Last year, GSMST’s club fair connected students to our school community and promoted the many enriching clubs our school had to offer. But this year, club fair had some noticeably empty spaces. GSMST administration has cut at least 9 clubs, including the Black Student Union, the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Hispanic Organization Promoting Education, the Christian Student Association, the Muslim Student Association, Interact, Mock Trial, the Volunteer Income Tax Association, and Beta Club. It appears that non-academic clubs were targeted in an effort to raise GSMST’s academic standards and push students to perform better. This change, however, destroyed environments where students could gain support and connect with the community. Unless these clubs are brought back, GSMST’s community will likely weaken and cause student performance to drop dramatically.