Lake Zurich is enacting new safety policies and procedures for on-campus football games.

The new safety initiative, also known as “Game Day Safety”, sets new regulations for kinds of bags and carry-ons that are permitted inside the stadium during football games. This means that backpacks, drawstring bags, large purses, camera bags, fanny packs, coolers, and any other non-transparent containers are prohibited. Smaller carry-ons, such as Lululemon bags, are approved, but will still be subject to a bag check at the front gate.

According to the administration, Game Day Safety polices apply only to football games in particular due to large crowd sizes.

“We would get bogged down […] when people would come in with their backpack from school, because we would have to check the entire backpack,” Joseph Haney, student dean, said. “If someone brings [a] Lululemon bag or a clear bag […] it drastically reduces the amount of time per person that we would be looking into any […] bag.”

According to the administration, Game Day Safety streamlines entry to football games by enhancing visibility of items in bags and limiting the amount of contraband.

“There’s items we don’t want to be brought into the stadium,” Daniel Dolney, athletic director, said. “There’s also situations where people may not intend to bring something in, […] so [with the new polices] some of those items that could make the game unsafe are no longer being brought in.”

According to Dolney, the administration “wouldn’t rule out” extending Game Day Safety polices to other sports, or creating any new general safety policy.

“I think one thing that our district does very well is [that] we discuss these things. Year [after] year, we make changes to [our polices],” Dolney said. “So we did it, and we’ll continue to look at any policy we have [to see if we need to] make improvements or to make what we have in place better.”