Riley Brennan
Features and A&E
This past school year has been an interesting one. The building has been undergoing construction since the week before school started at the end of August. With this construction has come the inevitable changes. One of which, has been the absence of keycards. Few students have access to key cards, making it hard to enter the school at off times.
“While it still works for printing, I noticed my keycard does not work when I try to enter through the theater doors,” Victoria Siano reported.
The Lion’s Tale confirmed with the office that students who still have keycards will find that they do work for printing and for the passageway between the middle school and the high school. It seems this was done purposefully by administration, in an effort to increase safety around the school during construction, and keep exits and entrances from being used at off times during the day. This however, has proven to be difficult for all, especially for student athletes. When it comes to bringing in equipment in and out of school, not having a keycard or access via a keycard is incredibly difficult. Most of the time the doors to the entrance by the theatre, as well as by the office, are locked, meaning that students trying to return sports equipment to the trainer after games. This leaves students with very few options.
In the past, many students have lost their keycards; however, this did not mean they weren’t missed. Having a keycard provided many students with a sense of security; that feeling has been replaced with stress and frustration. Despite construction, students should still have keycard access to some important entry points.
If the keycard were to come back to New Hope, there are a few possibilities that should be considered in it’s design. Possible solutions to this problem include, a sort of barcode app that students could download to their phones and scan to get into the building, or something that students could put in or on their phone. Others have even argued for the “old fashion” keycard that has been used in the past. The point is, students want their keycards back.
