Social distance and smile! Student identification pictures are being taken each Friday in October 2020 in the Oak Park High School Pavilion. Strict social distancing guidelines have been implemented to ensure the safety of the event, with masks required to enter.

Yearbook adviser and English teacher Kathie Leggett campaigned for the process, believing that ID photos are instrumental to the yearbook class, especially when it comes to comparing photos submitted by students with the actual ID of the student. 

“The class and I regularly use student identification photos to make sure we properly label student names with student faces,” Leggett wrote in an email to the district office for approval. 

According to Leggett, receiving an ID is straightforward. After arriving at the Pavillion, students will be directed through the process by classified employees. Students will receive a photography card that they will hand to the photographer, who will take their photos. Removing masks will be necessary to take the photo so the photographer can see those smiles. 

After the camera flashes, students will wait for their ID photo to be printed. Once done, students are free to go home. 

Grade level determines the day of the photo, with seniors on Oct. 2. Juniors will go on Oct. 9, sophomores on Oct. 16 and freshmen on Oct. 23. Make-up photos for all grades will be Oct. 30. 

Times of photos depend on the first letter of students’ last names. Students with the last names “A-G” can go anytime between 10:30-11:30 a.m., “H-M” goes from 11:30-12:30 a.m., “N-S” from 12:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m and finally, last names “T-Z” go from 1:30-2:30 p.m. 

Senior Maya Baumann found the process to be easy and effective.

“The lines weren’t super long, and I think they did a good job at social distancing,” Baumann said. “It also was nice seeing people I knew there for the first time in about seven months.”

For more information and guidelines on how to purchase photos, check out this StudentSquare post.