The Lincoln Log

Photo by Dana Lui

As I am walk through the hallway, all of a sudden I hear voices yelling, “Hurry up or you’ll be caught in the hall sweeps!” You can see the change in pace of every student in the hallway, trying to make it to class without getting caught. I speed of to my class, and in my head, I was quite surprised that an actually hall sweep was present.

I’ve attended Lincoln for three years, and in my experience I’ve always heard about hall sweeps, but never seen one take place. The last hall sweep I remember hearing about was during was my freshmen year and for me, it never happened again. I’m not saying they never occurred, but happened so few times that people rarely notice. Hall sweeps eventually became nonexistent to me. When I was late, I would be always worried about how the teacher would look at me and how everyone in the class would stare. It was not ever “Oh, I don’t want to get caught it hall sweeps.”

I’m not saying that hall sweeps aren’t effective because they are when they take place.

I can see the efforts of students rushing to their class, but what good are hall sweeps if they don’t take place often enough? If hall sweeps became an everyday thing, then students would be concerned about being on time to class. We wouldn’t dilly dally in the hallways because in our heads, we’ll consider hall sweeps.

But then, why would it become our administrators’ job to make sure you’re on time to class? Shouldn’t that be the student’s personal responsibility? Teenagers tend to claim they’re independent and capable of taking care of themselves. Therefore, isn’t it our responsibility as teenagers to get to our classes on time? In a way, I also understand why hall sweeps don’t occur often. We have to learn to be accountable for ourselves. As teenagers, it’s about time that we know the consequences for our own actions.

Perhaps hall sweeps take place for another reason. Notice all the outside visitors we have walking around and pretending they are Lincoln students. In a school of over

2,500 students, our administrators can’t tell who is a student or a trespasser. It remains a mystery to me of the reasons a student would cut their own school in order to visit another school. Seems like most people would have better things to do instead to bop around another school than your own.

Thanks to our unwelcome visitors, students are expected to carry around locator cards to identify that we are students attending Lincoln. When you help smuggle your friends in, don’t you feel as though you have to keep your friends from getting caught? You also have the chance of being convinced to skip your own classes.

I don’t feel that Lincoln students should waste their school time on friends that trespass. Your friends have plenty of time to visit you during the weekend or after school.

It’s not wrong for your friends to wait outside of school. In that way, they can attend their school and you can attend yours.

Hall sweeps are a positive idea because they work and secure our school from visitors. At times, it may seem like a pain, but it’s just a way the adults at Lincoln try to motivate you to be on time for class. But it isn’t their education that may be slowly slipping away with each tardy, it is ours. Having to be said, it’s about time we grasp onto the responsibility of being on time to each and every class.