lanyards: students and teachers

By Jordan Atkinson

Towards the end of the 2017-2018 school year, students were informed that this year we would all be required to wear lanyards around our school’s campus. Emails were sent out to students through Schoolloop announcing that this year they’d be distributed to every student after we got our pictures taken and that the main purpose of us being given these lanyards is to ensure that all students roaming campus are actually enrolled here, and not one of the charter schools or any other school off campus for that matter.

When you take a look around campus though, although many teachers are seen sporting their new lanyards, it is very rare to see a student with one hanging around their neck. Since the staff hasn’t really been doing much to enforce this, most don’t even bother wearing theirs.

Lynn Tran(12) gave her reasoning as for why she never puts her’s on, stating, “I think if a staff member is suspicious, I think they should go up to the student and ask if they can see their ID. I don’t think we need to have them on our necks.”

Whether or not students should be wearing them is definitely debatable, but regardless, when it comes down to it, staff has the final say in the fate of lanyards. No matter their stance on the subject though, many have been curious as to why we were instructed to wear them if staff isn’t actively enforcing us to wear them. 

Since this subject sparked my own curiosity as well I decided to reach out to our school’s Principal, Mr. Berg, in an attempt to to finally find some answers. After speaking to him, I have gained a little more insight as to what’s going really going on with the whole situation.

The first question I asked him was, ”How big of an issue is the fact that students are not complying with the new requirement of wearing lanyards around their neck” in which he replied, “The main issue isn’t that students aren’t wearing their lanyards, it’s what they stand for, which is school pride and safety. This is more so of a test year for the lanyards, and it’s a very complicated issue. We would like for everyone to wear their lanyards, but we don’t want it to turn into something where students are excluded from things if they are not wearing theirs.”

On the subject of what staff would do to enforce this, he stated, “It’s tough to figure out what an appropriate consequence would be, if anything it would start with a warning, and after several warning detention would most likely be the last resort.”

So from the information I’ve gathered, really there’s no reason worry about any crazy punishments going on in the future if you happen to forget your lanyard at home for a day.

The main thing he said that he wished to see students doing in the future if nothing else though is to make sure they remember to wear their lanyards when checking out books from the school library for the convenience of the librarians. Out of respect for their time, everybody should make their best effort to ensure that they have theirs on them in that situation, if none else. 

Honestly if you think about, since the lanyards are black, they are pretty easy to match with almost any outfit so it’s not like it’ll ruin your style if that’s what you’re worried about. If you don’t like your ID photo, just flip it around so it only shows the back.

It’s an easy way to make our campus slightly safer and show off Sixer Pride, so if you care about either of those two things you might as well take a few seconds out of your day to put it on. If not then well, that is ultimately your own decision, just enjoy that freedom while you still have the option to.