Parents are now required to sign “opt-in” forms, allowing their child to partake in any of the school’s extracurricular clubs. The policy went into effect this year after the passing of Texas Senate Bill 12.

In addition to introducing this new form, the Senate Bill bans any club centered around students’ sexual identities, for example an LGBT club.

“Not only does Senate Bill 12 tighten the control around these guidelines, but it also effectively bans all LGBT clubs or clubs centered around student orientation,” Westlake club manager Paul Cooley said.

While these new guidelines in the bill have been put in place to help, the process for starting a club at Westlake was already firm. To start a club, a student needs ten members to sign a waiver, indicating that they have enough peers to form. From there, that student needs to find a teacher who agrees to become the advisor and sponsor for the club; the teacher is required to be at all meetings and help organize events that the club is interested in attending or creating. Only once they have both of these steps filled out can the completed process be sent to club manager Paul Cooley, who will then give the club permission to start meetings and such. 

This change applies to all clubs, whether or not they have been pre-approved by the school in previous years, as a prerequisite for organizers. As students begin signing up and attending clubs through the first weeks of school, the form has been prompting mixed reactions.

Some students say the new policy represents a change from the informal club scene in previous years and risks discouraging involvement. To many, the new policy creates a new sense of parental and official oversight.

“Last year when I was running the Politics Club, it was really relaxed, and we didn’t really have much interaction with the parents,” senior Quinlan Rees-Carr said. “This year my sponsor has been replying to emails from parents that we didn’t deal with before. Also a lot of people don’t realize they need to get the form signed, so we have sort of a drop in club members during this transition period.” 

Students are also concerned that their parents might be too busy and overlook the form.

“My parents don’t often check their email, so I had to remind them to sign the form,” junior Rachelli Marcelin said. “I know a couple people who wanted to come to first couple of meetings for the club I’m in, but they didn’t have the signed form yet.” 

The form itself doesn’t differentiate between different types of clubs: academics, service organizations, groups of a shared identity or interest — all clubs are treated equally. This has led some students to become confused on the specifics of the form, such as if it applies to clubs that meet during lunch with the sponsor themselves, and whether the form applies to multiple clubs or just one (for reference, it covers all clubs).

“Originally I wasn’t completely sure what I was supposed to tell the people interested in my club, because I didn’t fully know all the specifics of it,” sophomore Maya Fundamenski said.

Some club founders and sponsors this year are struggling to keep up with the combination of having to make sure that students take care of the form and the already strenuous experience of bringing an influx of students to the club.

“It just adds another thing that we have to worry about, in my opinion,” Fudamenski said. “It’s been tough with my new environmental club — the form isn’t a big deal, but it’s really just an inconvenience.” 

While it’s created frustrations for some club officials, for others it hasn’t made a difference.

“The Model UN club is bigger this year than it ever has been,” senior Thomas Marrs, a board member of the Model UN club, said. “I’m sure that probably has something to do with it being a popular club in general, but the form hasn’t changed anything for us. I’m sure it is for smaller clubs, but if anything, I’d say it helped us.”

While for many club managers the new guidelines may be causing chaos, overall it’s simply viewed by students as being another layer of bureaucracy being stacked on over the years.