Do you often find yourself bored during lunch? Luckily for you, CHS has new clubs that you could join!

Today, we’ll be taking a look at two of CHS’ newest clubs, Reality and Transgenderism (RAT) and Psyched. These are both student-run clubs with important focuses on issues that many CHS students face. 

“We have inadequate resources for LGBT students,” senior Anthony Gentile states, “and it’s important to provide help.”  He and a group of other students created RAT to stand up for LGBT students at CHS and make “actionable change.” Gentile stresses that this club is not another Spectrum, saying, “We’re an advocacy group- Spectrum is a support group.”

“It’s a way for students to advocate for themselves,” says Emma Rollo, a senior member of RAT.  Rollo claims that the club will be about supporting Transgender students beyond an emotional level. Rollo states that if a student were to bring up a pressing issue, “We will go talk to administrators.”

At the moment the primary focus of RAT is changing the gender-neutral bathrooms at CHS. “We may have one gender-neutral bathroom, but it’s all the way at the end of the 300 hall,” says Rollo. “We want to get more gender-neutral bathrooms and normalize it.” 

Another important new group is Psyched, a club with a focus on mental health issues. “I realized with the Covid pandemic that there was a lot of need for discussion on mental health,” states the club president and founder, senior Caitlin Flannery. “I’ve always been really passionate about mental health,” she continues, “If you understand how your mind works then you can understand how other people’s minds work and be empathetic towards them.” 

Flannery wanted to create a safe environment for students to discuss mental health issues and “learn the inner workings of their minds.” She believes it’s important to stress the fact that this club is for education on mental health issues, not therapy to help deal with them. “This is not a group therapy club,” she states, “I’m not qualified for that.” The club does, nonetheless, have a social worker as an advisor, alongside CHS teacher Mr. Shrager.

“It gives an opportunity to learn about mental health,” says Cricket Shehab, a senior who’s interested in joining the club. She, like many others, has heard many good things about this new club at CHS. She explained that she hopes it will “create a more open conversation about psychological issues and mental health.” 

Both clubs at CHS focus on issues significant to students and encourage new members. To find out more about joining, listen for the club names in the morning announcements or look out for posters around the school.