At Freedom High School, the Student Government Association (SGA) plays a big role in the setup of events. The group takes care of setting up pep rallies, homecoming, and prom, among others.

“SGA is sort of in charge of keeping up the pace of the school, our goal is to get as many students as we can to attend events,” said SGA sponsor Toni Guida.

Up until this year, SGA as well as student athletes got into all home sporting events for free. However, this year that is no longer the case.

“In the past, we got in for free to encourage attendance and it was mandatory for SGA students to attend certain events. Now the school relies on athletics to make money, and letting SGA in for free was no longer a luxury they could afford to allow. The policy changed the first week of school, and we weren’t made aware until the first home [football] game,” Guida said.

It’s a lot lengthier process than people realize for SGA to prepare and set up an event. For each event, whether it be homecoming or something such as a pep rally, absolutely everything has to be approved by every administrator. What people don’t realize is that they can have a say in what’s planned for these events.

“We try and take the ‘temperature’ of the student body to find out what they would want to see, we ask the student body for suggestions, but most of the time, nobody is very vocal making it very hard to please everyone. We are always in need of more suggestions and ideas. Responsibilities are divided up, I normally decide who does what. Everyone has different jobs and it works like a clock. Most of the time nobody works alone so that there is never too much pressure on one person, and so if one of them slacks then someone else can fill the role. And at the end of the day everyone reports to me. ” said Guida.

The new policy has caused a commotion among the student-athletes and the SGA members.

“I hope it doesn’t discourage athletes from supporting other athletes, and while SGA members will be at some events we will no longer be at all events. I fully respect the decision, but I will miss having the support of bigger crowds, and being with all my kids,” said Guida.

Student-athlete and SGA member Aidan Boggs shared his thoughts on the new policy. “I wasn’t in SGA last year, but I was and am currently a student athlete on the Freedom High School Lacrosse team, so I did still get in for free. This year neither one allows the privilege we had last year. I can see at games that there’s less people and a lot less spirit this year which is a bummer. A large majority of the regulars to attend these games were student athletes, but now the price of these games can rack up so less and less people are going. The new policy is understandable but pretty disappointing, especially considering that we play a big role in the setup of some of these events, but still have to pay in order to attend them.”

Only time and cooperation of SGA members, student-athletes, and the rest of the student body combined can provide a solution to this predicament.