Code Confusion Cleared Up

by Rachel Kenderdine

Many students involved in extracurricular activities at PCHS were confronted by a very important question at some point within the last few weeks: What was the reason for the sudden onslaught of Extracurricular Codes lately?

The ten-page document gives the student participant the basic rules and regulations for playing a sport or being involved in a club at school, such as attendance, eligibility, and drug testing rules. The Code requires a parent’s signature agreeing that the school rules are understood and their student will follow them.

Olivia Underwood, a junior, said she was given one Extracurricular Code for each activity she was in to fill out within a week. “I was annoyed that I had to fill out three extracurricular forms, because I feel like that’s a lot of needless paperwork,” she said.

So why were so many handed out over the past few weeks? Mr. Cox, the Assistant Prinicipal of PCHS, was able to clear up the confusion.

“We have different clubs that start throughout the year,” he said. “For example, FFA, when they initiate the freshmen and they become new members; when you have spring sports, you have kids who may not have had that signed; drama, with the play and the orchestra.”

Therefore, the Extracurricular Codes were handed out normally, when students who do not technically have permission to be involved in an activity can gain that.

“You just have a lot of activities that start in the spring, and if I go through the list and have kids who haven’t taken one home, they get one,” Mr. Cox said.

He also added that though students may feel as if they have signed the form before, they have not unless they have already been a part of an extracurricular activity earlier in the year.

“If you’re not involved in something at the beginning of the year, you don’t have to fill out one of those or consent to a random drug test [at the time,]” he said.

But despite this information, many are still baffled by the papers they were given.