On February 4, there was a town hall stating that there will be new lanyards enforced into place. These lanyards will state what house you’re in and have a specialized QR code that can be scanned to document your behavior.

This town hall was presented by ELA teacher Ms. Lucia, was very informative about what AFYW juniors should expect in the upcoming months. She stated that these lanyards must be worn everyday to enforce more school spirit by showing pride for the house system that was recently added this school year. To get one of these lanyards you must have  had your student ID card by February 13th, but this date has been extended because of the blizzard that had recently taken place. On these lanyards there will be a personalized QR code for each student that teachers and staff can document their behavior on. This can consist of latenesses, absences, misbehaving in ways like abusing the phone policy, or just any form of acting out of line. They can also document any positive things that you’ve done as well like helping around the school, coming on time, or actively participating in our school’s events like Spirit Week. When something positive is documented you earn your house points, and whichever house has the most points gets a prize at the end of the year; But is this really a good idea?

Many people have very mixed reviews about the new lanyards. I’ve interviewed Ms. Tamara, AFYW’s junior guidance counselor, to get her opinion. She said, “I feel like having the lanyards for students and teachers will hold us all more accountable, cause right now I feel like the house system is this thing that exists but is not really concrete; so i think that the lanyards will make the system more concrete, like behavior and attendance and showing kindness.When teachers can see that they can reward that with an actual system.” Here Ms. Tamara agrees with the idea of the lanyards and thinks that it will be a positive change to the school, but not everyone thinks this way.

I’ve also interviewed a high school teacher here at AFYW who wished to stay anonymous. They said,” There’s something a little robotic about the idea of everyone having a QR code and being ready to be scanned. There’s just something about that whole concept that just makes me uncomfortable about it, especially since it has to be worn everyday, but I know that other schools do it and it’s shown to be a system that works so as with anything I’m open to see how it pans out.” This teacher is against the idea but not completely closed off about it since they are still curious about how it will affect the school.

I’ve also made sure to connect with one of AFYW’s students, Rianna, a freshman, to hear her opinion about this controversy. Rianna said,” I don’t like it because it’s easy for teachers to make a choice to judge your behavior at the moment. They could also report you for any little thing that wouldn’t even be fair to put as a behavioral report.”

There are many different high schools all around the world that also require their students to wear lanyards. For example, Parsippany High School in New Jersey. In this school each student has their very own lanyard that has to be worn everyday that are also color coded by grade. In an article written by one of their students it states,”Specifically, at Parsippany High School, all students and faculty are required to wear colored ID lanyards that correspond with their class- the class of 2027 wears blue, the class of 2026 wears black, the class of 2025 wears white, and the class of 2024 wears grey.” At this school the staff and faculty are also forced to wear these lanyards. Another school that has this rule is Lakeland Highschool in Shrub Oak, New York. In a Facebook post posted by the official school’s page it states, ”Beginning in January, 2026, students who do not have their ID and/or properly display their ID will receive a disciplinary consequence following our progressive disciplinary approach.” At this school, students get a penalty for not wearing or having their lanyards visible.