The gap within eligibility enforcement

Yusra Asif, Journalism Student

The eligibility code for athletes versus other extra curricular activities is not seeming enforced fairly in the Glenbard South school environment. Although most schools make students sign a code of conduct, stating certain requirements of students involved in a club or sport, most clubs and extracurricular activities do not enforce the requirements as strictly as sports.

 

It is known, that many sports teams strictly enforce the code of conduct. At Glenbard South, an athlete’s grades must consist of seven passing classes, otherwise they are ineligible to play until the grades are brought up. In fact, coaches are constantly checking to make sure their athletes are doing what they need to do in the classroom in order to receive playing time.

 

In fact, any athlete who violates the conditions of the code of conduct will have direct removal with no chance of playing time until the passing of seven out of the eight classes is met. In contrast to this, other clubs are more lenient with their requirements on their members grades.

 

In past years, the volleyball team has pulled several players. Defensive specialist, Mady Carli, stated that grades are highly monitored during the season, and coaches have not hesitated to pull players out. There have been several times where team members have had to sit out due to grades or behavior. Coaches have had a zero tolerance policy regarding these issues and have kept a close watch over their athletes.

 

Furthermore, it seems clubs, like National Honor Society, Key Club and the Drama Club, do not enforce the grade eligibility in the code of conduct as strictly as sports do.

 

For example, Drama Club has not been as strict with the code of conduct until recently. A major cast member, senior Julianna Gutierrez, said that those of the Drama Club signed the activity code of conduct sheet, which stated the same requirements as the athletic code of conduct. She expressed that usually grades have not been a huge problem. In fact, she has never heard of a case where the director had pulled anyone from the play as a result of poor grades.

 

The code of conduct is more strictly enforced now than in past years. According to Gutierrez, grades are more of an expectation than anything. Gutierrez also states the new director seems to enforce all the rules in the code of conduct.This means she is pulling anyone who does not meet the requirements out of any play regardless.

 

With that being said, it is more common for athletes to be pulled from their activities due to grades. Although enforcement in some clubs, like Drama Club, has improved recently, there still has been gaps of eligibility enforcement within different sports and clubs at Glenbard South. This concludes that it is necessary for all students to be held at an equal standard, regardless of their activity.