Q&A: Lanyards with Principal Michael McDonald

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Madison Chambers, Former Sports Editor

Q: What is the reasoning for implementing the lanyard identification?

A: “To carry identification, “is a professional standard now. When you go to college you have to carry your I.D. with you at all times … another reason is that I want every adult in this building to know who the students are, I think that is really important, especially for emergency situations … the third reason is that I want to make sure that students who are in this building are actually students that go to this school, more often than you might expect, there are students on this campus that don’t belong here.”

Q: What will happen if a student forgets their lanyard and I.D card?

A: “I think it will take some time for students to get used to the lanyards … it will probably be easier for freshmen to get used to the lanyards and harder for seniors … I don’t want to make it a punishment if students forget one day … if I see a student five days in a row without their lanyard then I might just have a conversation with them, see what is going on.”

Q: Are the lanyards encouraged or mandatory?

A: “They are completely mandatory, although I wouldn’t expect anybody to wear them during a P.E. class or anybody to wear them in something like a ceramics class or in a woodshop class, probably not a good idea to have your lanyard on then.”

Q: Do you think these lanyards will help the attendance issues at our school?

A: “It has been really interesting at the beginning of the day and at the end of lunch, the number of students coming in late has dramatically decreased, people are actually getting to their classes on time … I am very curious to see what the overall attendance numbers will look like … eventually there will be a scanning system … that way we can know who is in the building.”