Underclassmen during their study hall.

This school year freshman through juniors are required to follow the new study hall procedures. These changes were a surprise to students, as many were unaware of the new changes. Due to the freshman/sophomore study hall in the upper library being under construction making it unavailable for students, a need for a new study hall procedure was in need.

This year the underclassmen don’t have to report to a study hall proctor for attendance. Students just have to scan one of the QR codes in the library, HRC or SRC, and it counts students’ attendance for the study hall period.

Due to underclassmen having this new freedom, it can get chaotic in areas like the library or HRC. If students are looking for a quiet place to study, room 8 with Mrs. Neal’s room is the perfect place to get away and focus on their work. 

Many students have found to like the new procedures and feel like it is a more beneficial way to get work done.

“I like the new study hall a lot. I save a lot of time going straight to a resource center to work instead of waiting for attendance to be taken in study hall,” sophomore Brenton Oates said.

Many students are curious about the potential rumor spread about a “tracker” being placed when scanning the QR codes.

“We have geotrackers located within the QR codes. They don’t track you or where you are, but they do track the specific QR code you scanned,” Dean Mr. Frank Lesniak said. “The tracker recognizes when the QR code has been copied or saved, and will block the response to be submitted. You physically have to be in the resource room scanning their QR code for it to count for attendance.”

Deans like the new procedure because it is useful for them to know where every student is at a given time.

“The goal for the QR codes is to keep kids accountable. It is also important for any teacher to be able to locate where you are in case of an emergency,” Dean Mrs. Clegg said.

HRC supervisor Mrs. Eikenberry requires students to scan the QR code and put any phones away during their study hall period. This keeps students more focused on completing their school work.

“I like the new study hall. I think it helps students maximize their learning time by going straight to a resource center,” Eikenberry said.                                                                                          

However, this is still very new and the system is not perfect yet. Many students forget to scan the QR code and are marked absent from their study hall period. This causes trouble for the Deans to determine where the student was and why the QR code was not scanned.

“One of the problems we have encountered is if a student signs in a couple minutes early it counts their attendance for the wrong class period. We are still working on how to change that,” Mr. Lesniak said.

Every year the desire to leave campus during school hours has increased, so this year many security members at LFHS are around each exit of the building. This is to prevent any students leaving campus without the privilege to do so. If students want to leave the building during school hours, they must have an excuse, scan out with Mrs. McDermand and exit through the front commons.