If you’ve attended THS for even just a few months, you’ve definitely heard about our strict lanyard policy. It’s so controversial that even the senior class president compared our school to 1984, Orwell’s book about a dystopian society. Such strict policies have led students to blame student support leaders, often the ones enforcing the lanyard policy. It’s likely you’ve also heard the deceptive nickname “Lanyard Lady” that was labeled on Mrs. Tara Haggerty. But have you ever bothered to get to know her before using this nickname to refer to her?
Haggerty has been working at THS for a whopping 30 years as a student support leader, a study skills teacher, and an Olympics advisor. Unfortunately, being a student support leader has left a lot of the lanyard policy enforcing on her and the other SSLs. “ We just try to enforce the rules to keep students safe, and it shouldn’t be such a battle, but I know it is, and I know we get a bad reputation for that,” she explained.
Working closely with Haggerty while preparing for the Olympics, I got to know a different side of her that other students perhaps haven’t seen. I was really bothered that they judged her so harshly without really knowing how kind she was. But Haggerty, apparently, has experienced this before.
“ I would have seniors come up to me and say, ‘Oh, you know, I thought you were really mean before, but now I’ve gotten to know you and you’re so nice.’ And I’m like, well, that’s because you only saw one side of me. You only saw the side where I was telling you to wear your lanyard or because I had to give you a detention because you did something wrong in class or you cut a class or you were disrespectful,” she said.
Haggerty began helping in preparation for Olympics in 2001 and has worked in it for 19 years on and off. “When I was in high school, I did cheerleading, so school spirit is kind of ingrained in me,” she said. “ One time, in high school, my friends told me how they cheated on a history essay and I tried, but they didn’t tell me how they got away with it.” Haggerty tried it, but was quickly caught. After getting in trouble, she knew that she never wanted to go through that experience again. “So, that was it. My one and only time to cheat. And I got caught, and I never did it again,” Haggerty said. “That’s why I just follow the rules. It makes life much smoother.”
Haggerty is possibly one of the most misunderstood staff members at THS. In talking with her, I discovered that she is a mom to two college students and a wife to a police lieutenant. She has two rescue dogs, Willa and Finnegan, that she loves dearly.
Although many students initially deem her to be a mean teacher, she is actually so much more than that. All it took for me was getting to know her a little more and realizing we’ve been missing out on such a hidden gem.
