On May 13th, 2025, I had the privilege of sitting down with our principal, Mr. Laman, where we discussed his first year here at Lakota West High School. We talked about a variety of subjects, ranging from his successes and goals for students to more in-depth questions about senior prank, graduation, and the various challenges Lakota West has faced over the school year. During our thirty-minute discussion, Mr. Laman repeated the idea of building a culture in Lakota West: a goal of his that he hopes shines through his desire to show up, show out, and make Lakota West a great place to be. His undeniable love for the students and staff was put on full display during our interview. As you read, you will begin to see just how passionate he is about building an amazing, talented, and educated Lakota family.
Thomas: I just want to start by asking, how has your first year been as principal of Lakota West High School?
Laman: First year has been great! Have really enjoyed making this transition and haven’t regretted it one second. Been in Lakota since 2015… It’s really cool to see students at the end of the journey. I’ve seen them in junior high, I’ve seen that at (Lakota West) freshman, and now I get to see the sophomores, juniors, seniors, and really get to follow these guys. I’ve been with some of them for five years, all the way back to my junior high days. It’s not only fun to see the closing the high school journey, but the start of their new journey. College, the workforce, it’s exciting.
Thomas: What was it like during the first few months of the year? Did it take time to adjust to the role?
Laman: It took some time, but I’ve had some great mentors to help me, like Mr. Brow,n Mr. Elgin Card, and I’ve still taken the time to talk to Mr. Hamilton who was the principal here some time ago. I knew what to expect, but you never really know until you’re in the seat. The pace and volume is greater at main campus, but it comes with appreciation to impact more kids, and a wide range of students. Definitely took time to get used to, but I will say I was mentored very well to prepare for the role.
Thomas: What are some similarities and differences between being principal at West Freshman and (Lakota West) Main Campus?
Laman: The day-to-day work is relatively the same, you know? You just translate it to a high this size, it’s the volume and pace you work at. Obviously there’s more senior things to manage, like graduation and testing. So there’s different little jobs inside the big job. But for the big job, as the principal, is to number one focus on the culture of the building. That’s one thing I’ve always said when I was at the freshman building, now here. That’s the most important thing, we drive to have a strong culture and develop young men and women to prepare for a life outside of school. That goal has never changed, and the overall job is the same.
Thomas: What is one thing you miss about the freshman building?
Laman: The people. We always miss people when you move on, and the staff I don’t get to see as much. I love the staff up here, that’s no knock on them. But anytime you move on from a position, you miss the people you worked with. And you have to get used to in leadership being comfortable with being uncomfortable. You’ve got to feel comfortable being in the phase of establishing relationships with the staff up here, getting to know them well, but that first ten months is weird, it takes time.
Thomas: What has been the hardest part of being principal of Lakota West High School?
Laman: As I mentioned earlier, it’s the volume and the pace you work at. Now, naturally, I am a fast worker and I don’t like to sit around, so I’m not afraid of it… but it is a lot. When you have 700 to 750 students in one class, all of the sudden, simpler tasks in a smaller building become much more significant and much more difficult to carry out.
Thomas: When you entered this school, you’re handed Lakota West, what were your biggest goals or things you wanted to see changed?
Laman: My biggest goal is culture, always. We really have to define the values of “what does it mean to be a Lakota West student.” We came up with three: authenticity, investments, and relationships. We really hang our hat on being authentic for who we are. And I’ve made no apologies about it: I’m not Elgin Card, I’m not Ben Brown, I have different philosophies, and a different way. But if you want to be great at anything, you have to put the time in. If you want to be successful, be the best of something… what that something is doesn’t matter. But if you’re the best at something? You’re going to be really good at being successful. And then it really comes down to our relationships and how our students and staff get along… how we, the admin, get along. What I’ve always said to my boys is, I want them to see my investment. I’m not this hierarchy that’s going to work from a desk in a chair, I will be boots on the ground, and hopefully I’ve showed the students and staff that I will be present in the building, I’ll be out there doing the work, not just a leader in an office.
Thomas: What’s been one of your biggest successes of this year, in your eyes?
Laman: I do feel like our culture has been one of our biggest shifts. I know I keep going back to that, but we have a very strong culture that continues to grow. I see students and staff really wanting to help each other out, and it’s not about “that’s not my job,” or “that’s not on my contract,” it’s about what is best for the students of Lakota West. That’s really cool, to see that blossom.”
Thomas: What’s your favorite memory of this year? Do you have one?
Laman: Oh, I have a lot! One that sticks out is senior sunrise, I came in here one morning and didn’t know about it. And I saw them out, and I thought, “Oh wow, all these seniors on the football field, that’s cool!” It was just a special moment for me to enjoy those kids… I love seeing our alumni come back, and seeing people I’ve coached or taught over the year. It means a lot when they come back… I had the opportunity to recognize our kids who played in the national championship, especially since I remember coaching a couple of them back in the Ridge days. So, that’s a cool moment, when you get to see those kids come back. The Malik Hartford’s, Ben Minich, the Alex Afari, like… these kids I remember when they were 7th grade at Ridge! And now they’ve grown up and doing what they are doing… It is cool! But I couldn’t define just one (memory). It is really just seeing the journey. I’ve seen these kids develop over time, and there’s so many success stories I could tell you, and that’s what really brings me great joy. And of course our performing arts, sports… we have one of the best theatre programs in the state. Love going to see the band play, the choir… our basketball team making a state semi-finals run, was really something special for our kids. There’s just so many memories, and you just have to appreciate them as you go.
Thomas: What’s one thing you found surprisingly enjoyable that maybe you weren’t expecting at the start of the year?
Laman: Probably the maturity level.
Thomas: Really?!
Laman: Yeah, it’s funny because everyone would tell you, “ah, sophomores, the sophomores…” but I’ve been at the freshman building, I’ve seen it. When you get to your junior/senior year, I mean, our kids do what they’re supposed to do, and it’s really enjoyable from our standpoint to sit back and say, “It finally worked, we got them where we wanted.” It’s been very surprising… not surprising from the idea that I didn’t expect it to be, but just the significant gap of maturity is real, which is cool to see.
Thomas: When someone enters the doors of Lakota West, a first-time student, what do you want their ideal experience to be?
Laman: I want it to be relationship-driven first. I want them to meet people, and know there’s people here to support them. I don’t want any student to walk through the door and feel like they’re on an island. And then, we want kids to feel supported. Anything they need, under a certain situation (which we will do) we’ll take care of them. When you walk through these doors, I consider you my kid. One of my great mentors, Elgin Card, would always used to tell me, “You’ve got 2200 kids at West Main and another 700 at Freshman. These are your kids.” I take great pride in that these will always be my kids, and I want to see them do well.”
Thomas: Talking about next year… now that you’ve had a year under your belt as principal of Lakota West, what are some things you might do differently next year?
Laman: We always keep a list of things to tweak and ideas of stuff to change… I love the idea of things being more student-led, such as orientation. I love the idea of furthering kids getting involved in clubs and sports, how we promote that… and how we continue to recognize students through our PBIS efforts, with positive behaviors that are being established. We will continue to work on the culture, drive the culture, and what it means to be a Lakota West Firebird.
Thomas: What are some things that happened this year that maybe didn’t go as planned?
Laman: There’s always things! In general, not that we had any big mistakes, but testing always has things that we can change. We test so much in this building from January to May, and there’s so much distraction! I want to keep working on pep rallies and state send-offs and make them feel more prestigious. Nothing went completely wrong, but we had learning curves! We’ve learned up here what we’ll do differently, but it’s just looking at the little things and seeing how to change them for next year.
Thomas: What are your plans here with Lakota? Do you plan on staying here long term?
Laman: Yeah, I am committed to Lakota, Lakota is my home. I moved down here in 2015 from my small little job of St. Mary’s, OH, where frankly I had my dream job there: I was ready to become an administrator, coaching two sports, never thought I’d leave! Then I met my wife, who wanted to move to Cincinnati, and I got a job at Ridge as a teacher, and have been at Lakota ever since. I have always said that Lakota is my second home! Lakota has been great to me, and I am committed to being the principal. At this stage in my career, I don’t have an appetite to pursue central office positions. This building is where I’m meant to be: I’m meant to be with kids, in the work grind, being here and enjoying the journey.
Thomas: Talking about some of the things that have happened this year, changes, developments, one of the big things that students talked about where those traffic changes from January. Now, we know a lot of that has been reverted. I know there were more “phases” left, so are there plans to re-look into that?
Laman: Yeah, that became one of those things we talked about this year. We had an unfortunate accident at the beginning of this school year that really allowed us to look at traffic flow. I don’t think anybody (before this year) was happy with the general traffic flow, safety concerns considered… and so West Chester Police started doing a study on it, using drone footage, seeing how could we be intentional on making this better: Safer, better, quicker. We want to be efficient for families who are coming to pick up their kids, we don’t want it to take an hour. But it goes back to that volume of when you’re dismissing 2200 kids from here, it’s hard to not! We’ve tried different things, learned it didn’t work, and reverted back. We’ll continue looking at it over the next few years, see what works best… of course, we are in talks for our facilities plan, which would move freshmen up here, so that would change it again. We’re always trying to make things safer and easier for parents. Safety is number one: if it takes longer, it takes longer.
Thomas: Going back to your comment on the Master Facilities Plan, have you begun considering those effects, which would add on the freshman here, building new halls and classes… that’s a huge addition to the high school!
Laman: Yeah, you talk about volume, it’d be so much bigger! You’re talking about nearly 3000 students up here. We’ve had beginning talks, still very early on in the process. It’s exciting, but it also comes with a ton of questions. It is preparing, coming up with a plan, and addressing certain situations or problems that may occur. But the reality is you’re going to be thrown into the fire and you’re going to have to figure it out. We’ll address that as it comes, but we need to advance in our stages of what that would look like before we have answers.
Thomas: Getting into the nitty-gritty of this year… For the first time in the history of Lakota West, our homecoming theme, “neon,” was repeated. Many students have expressed their frustrations with a lack of approved ideas, and so I want to know, what do you have to say to students who want to know why ideas, themes, or events might not be accepted by administration, or logistical for the school to carry out?
Laman: I will start by saying the homecoming theme is always up to the students, it is a student-led decision. There’s always certain rules and regulations you must follow to make sure it is appropriate, but I wasn’t made aware of any (themes) other than neon, and I would’ve have had no idea it was a repeated theme.
Thomas: I want to ask about closed bathrooms around the building. What is the decision process between keeping some bathrooms open and closed?
Laman: We recognize the serious problem of a lack of bathrooms and has been voiced in our Master Facilities Plan. When we have the volume we’ve got, to have two-stall bathrooms, just doesn’t work. The reason why certain ones are closed is because there’s a leak: a plumbing issue, and unfortunately, those take time to fix. Sometimes it means students have to be out of the building. Some of it involves taking walls out, getting machinery in… So it is not a matter of trying to shut down bathrooms because I don’t want people to use the bathroom, it’s just something that’s definitely been talked about.
Thomas: What is the primary reason senior prank doesn’t happen anymore?
Laman: Safety. I was with them when we did senior prank all the way back when Mr. Brown was in his first year here. Started out good, would totally do it. I would totally be for a senior prank, I’m not against an organized senior prank, I love the confetti, balloons, it’s all cool and fun…it became a safety issue. It became where we couldn’t control it, and frankly, we’ve had to call the police and get them involved. We were worried about the safety of our kids, our kids getting arrested. Also, we had some people from outside the school, outside Lakota, that wanted to come and break in, vandalize stuff. So… It’s unfortunate that people in the past have ruined it for the new generation, but if it could have stayed how it was, safe… Under Mr. Card it started safe, and then it got worse, and it got worse under Mr. Brown, and it wasn’t sustainable. The worst phone call I would have to make is, “your kid’s not graduating,” or even worse, “your kid is injured.” I can’t do it, as a leader, to allow that. And it eats at me that you can’t do something because I would want to, too. I mean, the other year we had students doing donuts in the parking lot around other people who were just standing there.
Thomas: So that’s gone too, nothing in the parking lots?
Laman: Uhm, I think somebody had mentioned to me they may have a wedding, that’s fine. I can’t have anything that jeopardizes the safety of the kids. And I get it from the student’s perspective, but you have to look at it from my perspective, I’m the one who has to call the parent. If it stays in fun in the parking lot, such as a fake wedding, that’s fine! It’s when you get to vandalizing the school and the property… if you weren’t a student, you would be arrested for doing that outside of school. It just can’t happen.
Thomas: Kind of like you mentioned before, we’ve had so many notable principals go through Lakota West: Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Card, Mr. Brown, all these amazing people, who have all somehow left an impact on Lakota West. How do you plan on leaving your mark on this school?
Laman: Through my work habits. My impact will be seen through my work, and I will work very hard to provide the best experience we can for Lakota West. Everyone brings their own culture and style… I still stay in contact with those people, and we will continue to talk principal to principal. But it’s really my work ethic that I think people will appreciate down the long run, that I was at everything I could get to, I was out of the building, and I was trying to provide the best experience for the kids.
Thomas: What’s your message to students as they prepare for exams, who might be stressed or nervous?
Laman: Don’t be stressed and do your best! Don’t get me wrong, it’s important, but it’s not the be-all-end-all. You’ve worked 13 years to graduation, and for juniors and sophomores, you’ve got more time to correct it. No one asks you what your GPA is when you get a job. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in my life was, “Your GPA will get you your first job. After that, your reputation will get you every job after that.” Your resume will get you that first job, and then your reputation and who you know will get you your future jobs. Don’t let it be the be-all-end-all, do your best and skip the rest! And then, you can have a good summer.
Thomas: What is your advice to the Class of 2025 as they prepare to leave Lakota West?
Laman: Without giving my graduation speech away, it’s hitting home the three values we put up on main street. Be authentic, be yourself! You don’t have to be what everyone else wants you to be, what social media wants you to be. Be true to yourself, be true to your beliefs, and be the best at what you choose to do. Doesn’t matter what you do, but be the best and find success. And always keep yourself relationship-driven. You are always welcome back, so use it! So use it, use that network, that’s the beauty of this volume and size. Always remember those people! And even after you leave Lakota West, you will always be a Firebird.
