Team Panther focuses on building an inclusive environment

Posted November 18, 2024

Note: This article appeared in the November issue of Hi-Lights, the Plymouth High School student newspaper.

By Iris Johnson
of the Hi-Lights staff

Role modeling, improving culture, and promoting inclusion. These are the main goals of a growing extracurricular: Team Panther. Team Panther is a leadership club for upperclassmen to lead and mentor new students and underclassmen. Some perceive the club as primarily focused on student-led games. However, it is much more than that.

Members are trained on topics such as academic integrity and team building by advisors every Monday during Panther Time to then teach underclassmen during Tuesday’s Panther Time. Club advisors also attend training sessions outside of school to ensure they are properly informed on the topics they teach.

“There’s no personal gain because of it. It’s all strictly culture building … you’re not really getting anything yourself but you’re giving to other people,” said science teacher Kevin Butters. 

Team Panther consists of more than 60 members. Each member must display strong leadership qualities and a passion for helping others. “People just want to help their school. They want to help the kids in their school. It started as mentoring the freshmen class and getting that culture building, and it morphed into taking pride in being a part of it,” Mr. Butters said.

The club takes academics and rule-following seriously. Advisors have the authority to remove students from the club if they are not being good leaders and role models. Additionally, all members have to sign a contract stating that they will follow school rules and be in good academic standing. “We do our grade checks to make sure that there are no Fs, because that's not something that members should have,” Mr. Butters said. 

Team Panther’s objective is summed up in the phrase “live above the line.” There are posters around the school with this message, it is taught to freshmen during orientation, and even mentioned at the Homecoming Pep Rally. The recent popularity of the phrase has left some students wondering what Team Panther’s tagline really means. According to the Team Panther Living Above the Line Freshmen Presentation, the “line” is an imaginary barrier that separates good and bad decision-making.  “Every day take ownership in what you’re doing, take responsibility for what you’re doing. Live in that positive area and don’t slip under [the line]," Mr. Butters said.

One aspect of Team Panther that most students are unaware of is Panther Buddies. Panther Buddies spend time in special education classrooms doing various activities and lessons. “We saw a need for more specialized help for transitioning people into our school, so I started to take over making sure our students with disabilities felt just as welcome,” said English teacher Allison Schwartz.

Some activities that the students participate in include bingo, Pictionary, slime making, and puzzles, as well as various activities in the gym. The goal is to make sure that students gain motor, social, and other core skills that they may have trouble learning.

Panther Buddies is still a growing division of Team Panther. “I think there aren’t a lot of us and I feel like if there were more of us, we could make a difference in more rooms,” said senior Claire Steinacker.

Team Panther itself has grown considerably over the past three years. It started as a club that met once a month during Panther Time and has now evolved into a club with two homerooms. One new activity this year is the Frosh Cup, where freshmen participate in scavenger hunts, quizzes, and other team-building activities to earn points for their homerooms.

“I think that our current juniors are the first Team Panther members who went through it as freshmen, so they know what they liked and didn't like and I think a lot of them wanted a hand in making that better,” Ms. Schwartz said.

She added that club membership can be valuable on college applications because it shows that you care about your school community and that you are willing to be a leader to make it a better place. Anyone interested in applying for Team Panther can find the application on Google Classrooms in late March.