Credits to: Angie Yang (helped with interviews)

Are lanyards necessary for Ridge High School to function? That is an important question that students may ask themselves. Although lanyards may not be the most crucial thing our school should be focusing on, especially with the Homecoming Game coming up and lots of tests to study for, it is still one that should be given some attention as students have various opinions on them and the purpose they serve for our school as a whole.

In my opinion, students wearing lanyards is not a bad policy to put in place, especially with how many students are at Ridge and how important it is for a school to know where its students are throughout the day. However, if the lanyard policy was removed, it would not change the school atmosphere much. Although lanyards are technically “required” to be brought to school, they are not enforced, and unless a student goes to the office to get a temporary one for the day, nobody will call them out for not having it unless they go to the bathroom or the cafeteria. It is understandable why lanyards are needed to get into those places, since there cannot be too many students in those areas at a time, but sitting and collecting lanyards is a waste of a teachers free periods. The answer to the question of whether or not lanyards truly benefit the school as a whole – after reviewing their purpose and how they affect Ridge High School’s population – is a resounding no.

In order to determine the school’s opinion on lanyards, various students from different grade levels were interviewed in order to get an account of whether or not the school sees lanyards as necessary. One student said that “[they] don’t mind lanyards…at least now [they’re] able to see what grade people are in…they can be necessary for a big school with so many people and it’s a good way to quickly identify someone.” Another student said that “the reason we have lanyards, which is for ensuring security, is pretty reasonable, but [the school doesn’t] enforce them enough for them to be actually useful. Sure, we can identify who attends Ridge through them, but a lot of people tend to forget to actually have the lanyards on them, which many faculty members are lax about.” A third student said that “[they are] okay with them and understand their role in ensuring our safety especially considering school shootings, but [they think] it’s kind of ridiculous to charge kids for them.” Overall, it seems that people understand that lanyards have a purpose and aren’t just identification tags we wear around our neck for no reason, however, they are not necessary for our school to function, and without them, our school experience would basically be the same.