Taxidermy, beekeeping, and model rocketry are all clubs that you could have been a part of at Pentucket between 1985 and 1986.

When Christoffer Detjens started his freshman year at Pentucket Regional High School, he joined the taxidermy and beekeeping clubs that were also welcome to middle school students. Pentucket offered many exotic clubs that one could be a part of, most notably taxidermy, along with many others.

“We would all kill our own animals even though they said not to,” was Detjens’s response when asked where they got the animals used in the class. They were supposed to use roadkill, but it is hard to find roadkill that is not already trampled. Instead, the students in the club would work on finding their own animals to kill even though it was not allowed.

The members of taxidermy club never actually got to stuffing the animals, but they found the animals, cleaned them, and skinned them. After skinning the animals they would cure and clean the fur, and later into the year they started reconstructing animal faces.

Because people were bringing dead animals into the classroom, it would smell of rotten flesh. Another problem they faced was accidental cutting of the brain. The smell of a cut brain would make kids sick, and the club would have to evacuate the classroom. The last problem which they faced, though rarely, was kids bringing in skunks. If the skunk’s sac was punctured the smell would be even worse than that of the brains. Once, when that did happen, students could not use the classroom it occurred in the next school day.  

Other clubs from previous years are yearbook club, German club, S.A.D.D (Students Against Drunk Driving), S.W.A.T, and many more. Many of the clubs that were offered at Pentucket are still relevant today.

Further research into the current clubs at Pentucket showed that S.A.D.D has since been changed to Students Against Destructive Decisions. S.W.A.T is no longer a club at Pentucket, but in previous years it was a club against animal cruelty. Believe it or not, Pentucket used to keep mice in the science classrooms, and according to Mr. Bartholomew, the members of S.W.A.T freed the mice.  

According to the Pentucket High School Extra-Curricular Activities 2018-2019 packet, Equestrian club, Gay-Straight Alliance, German club, Latin club, Math team, Model United Nations, Multimedia club, Newspaper club, Pentucket Literary club, Science League, Spanish club, S.A.D.D, Student Council, Yearbook club, A capella club, Art club, Jazz Band, and Photography club are all activities that you can be a part of. However, further observation shows that German club, A capella club, and Multimedia club no longer run. According to Mr. Bartholomew, Multimedia club is no longer offered and “has not been for a loooooong time.” Many new clubs have been added at Pentucket and several interesting clubs have been taken out throughout the years.