Political Activism Club (PAC) is a newly founded club at De Soto High School that allows students to express their political ideologies with their peers.
The club was founded by senior Brent Smith who wanted to allow students in the school an opportunity to discuss politics with peers in an appropriate manner and a controlled environment.
Anyone in the school regardless of grade or political background can join and are encouraged to come to the weekly meetings, usually on Fridays during Seminar.
The main topics discussed and sometimes debated in the club consist of social issues and policies, economic issues, infrastructure and plans for the future.
Some sensitive topics have also been discussed in the past like abortion, gun rights and LGBTQ+ policies and issues.
One PAC meeting about abortion and whether or not it should be legal had over 20 students attend.
This meeting luckily didn’t get too out of hand. Everyone there lets each other talk, then if they disagree they support their arguments with facts. This meeting was definitely one of the more major and widely discussed topics.
Senior Kyle Smith joined the club to learn more about current events and to hear opposing views from other students.
“I joined PAC to learn more about current happenings in the world, and I find that the PAC is a perfect club to hear the opposing views in a respectable manner,” Smith said. “This helps me to form an opinion as to where I lie on certain topics.”
Club meetings start off with a simple description of each person from their name, their grade, their political affiliation and some quirky fact about them such as their favorite color.
Senior Connor McCall talks about why he likes the club.
“I like the club because it gives me the opportunity to develop my stance on certain issues,” McCall said.
Meetings are very informative and mature. When people disagree with one another they wait for the other person to finish talking, then explain their views and reasoning behind it.
PAC is a widely growing club throughout the school and is one that all students should attend at least once.