Help with validating input

So basically I have a site, and on that site, I have a page that submits a form and updates a database. I have it set up so that someone can enter in Multiple values into a textarea, one on each line, and it will submit each of those values as a new row in the database, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to check those values against the actual users.

It is basically a point system, where the staff can award points users of the site. But at the moment, a Staff member could enter in Jibberish, and it would insert that into the database, but I want it to check my users table to make sure the user exists before it inserts it into the database.

here is my code:
[php]<?php
include ‘global.php’;

echo $headersidebar;

if ($_COOKIE[‘access’] == $accessstaff)
{

if(count($_POST))
{

$array = preg_split(’/(\r?\n)+/’, $_POST[‘studentname’]);
foreach($array as $students)
{

$statusmsg = ‘You have successfully submitted points to the database.’;

mysql_query(“INSERT INTO points (giver, receiver, points, category, reason, date, status) VALUES (’{$_COOKIE[‘username’]}’, ‘{$students}’, ‘{$_POST[‘pointamt’]}’, ‘{$_POST[‘pointcat’]}’, ‘{$_POST[‘pointreason’]}’, ‘{$date}’, ‘Validating’)”);
}
}

$addpointspage = $statusmsg . ’

<form action="submit_points.php" method="post">
<table class="table" >
<tr>
<td colspan="10">
<h1><strong><center>Submit Points</center></strong></h1>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="10" rowspan="100">
<center>Please remember to follow the house point limits when submitting house points.</center>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<table class="table">

<tr>
<td style="width: 15%;" valign="top">
Student Name:<br> <span style="font-size: 60%;">(List as many as you want; One per Line)</span>
</td>
<td colspan="10">
<center><textarea name="studentname" cols="60" rows="10"></textarea></center>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td style="width: 15%;" valign="top">
Amount of Points:
</td>
<td>
<input style="position: relative; left: 16px;" type="text" size="15" name="pointamt" />
</td>
<td>
Do not put anything that is not a number into this box.
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td style="width: 15%;" valign="top">
Point Category:
</td>
<td colspan="10">
<select name="pointcat" style="position: relative; left: 16px;">

<option SELECTED value="">-------</option>
<option>Class Work</option>
<option>Class Exam</option>
<option>Extra Work</option>
<option>Contests</option>
<option>Teacher\'s Assistant</option>
<option>Negative Points</option>

</select>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td style="width: 15%;" valign="top">
Reason:
</td>
<td colspan="10">
<input style="position: relative; left: 16px;" name="pointreason" type="text" size="80" />
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>
</td>
<td colspan="10">
<input style="position: relative; left: 16px;" type="submit" value="Submit Points" />
</td>
</tr>




</table
</form>

';

}

elseif (1==1)
{
$addpointspage = $accessdenied;
}

echo ’




’ . $addpointspage . ’


’ . $addpointslink . ’





	<div style="clear: both;">&nbsp;</div>
</div>
<!-- end page -->
';

echo $footer;

?>[/php]

I am fairly new to PHP, so I would appreciate any help someone could give me; I am not too good with arrays and such, so this one has got me stumped.

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