Knight Pride tickets are a reward system at LSE that are intended to reward students for demonstrating the main tenets of the school’s code of ethics — personal responsibility, respect, integrity, determination or excellence (PRIDE) — in the hallway or classroom. When these behaviors are observed by a teacher or admin, students are supposed to receive a Knight PRIDE ticket. Once the ticket is received and signed by the staff member that is rewarding the ticket, the student takes it to the main office and selects what prize they would like to be considered for. The prizes include front of the lunch line pass, premium parking in A Lot or the mystery prize. Drawings are announced every Friday during the week. Although the intentions of the Knight Pride reward system are good for the school, it isn’t being effectively carried out.

Kirk Svendsen, LSE AP Psychology teacher, weighed in.

 “[LSE administration] is trying to set up what is called a token economy,” Svendsen said. “The idea is that by rewarding desired behavior, you continually get students closer and closer to the way that we’d prefer them to behave.”

This “token economy” is not being carried out because there is major confusion within the student body and faculty on how Knight PRIDE tickets should be distributed. Should students get one every day for doing the right thing, or only on special occasions? Are only the students who don’t do what they are supposed to do and finally do the right thing supposed to get one? Teachers have argued that they don’t feel like they should reward students for doing what they are supposed to do. They should only reward students who exceed set expectations.

Changes need to be made to the Knight PRIDE ticket system. Teachers need clarification about how they should hand them out, as well as better prizes that motivate students to want to earn them. Just a few slight corrections and changes could drastically improve the Knight PRIDE ticket system.