Taking Attendance

The Protocol of the Lindbergh High School Attendance Office

Audrey Branding | Staff Writer

On any typical day, someone arrives at the attendance office, they ring the bell and the ladies at the office usually ask who they are or why they are visiting the building . The question is raised, however, about how trustworthy people really are during these more recent times.

When students arrive late, all of the doors are locked and other students in the building are not allowed to let people in. The only way for students to access the building is through the attendance office. Laura Ratliff (Attendance office) is one of the staff members that works in the attendance office. She said there are specific procedures in place to allow students into the building. , “The students have to be Lindbergh students, they have to check in with the security guard when they arrive and then when we unlock the doors, they have to go directly to us,” Ratliff said.

Those protocols are not just for students. Main Principal, Dr. Cochran said all visitors are expected to check into the building through the attendance office. “Mostly, we require all visitors to check in at the attendance office. The primary expectation is that they have to have a reason to be here or a person to visit that knows they are coming. If they are not here for a legitimate purpose, we can turn them away,” Cochran said.

Visitors are also expected to be outfitted with a special pass.

“We do have a system that runs a visitor’s driver’s license. It is designed to notify us if there is a concern that should potentially keep someone off of a school campus. The system then prints out a visitor’s pass that verifies for all of us that this individual should be in the building,” he said.

At least one student had opposing thoughts on how the attendance office handles letting people in. “Knowing that the attendance office sometimes lets people in without strict verification makes me feel uncertain about our true safety at this school,” Sydney O’Brien (12) said.

Despite those concerns, the school does have policies put in place to keep students safe and secure.