Bubbling with Joy
Working at the front gate at Cedar Shoals High School, Lasonja Hunt is in charge of letting people in and out of the campus. In addition to helping create a safe school environment, she also creates a relationship with whoever comes on the campus, waving at every car in the morning or talking to students as they leave to walk home.
“My role is to make sure that no child leaves without permission. Once they get on campus, whether they ride the bus or not, they cannot leave without the checkout slip,” Hunt said.
Students appreciate her energetic personality and charisma when entering the school.
“She’s a very nice and upbeat person with a good personality,” freshman Jack Justice said. “Being greeted by someone in a good mood is a good way to start off the day and it makes me happy.”
Life wasn’t always so joyful for Hunt, who was diagnosed with appendicitis her junior year of high school. Since she was sick, she was not able to meet her school’s attendance requirement and had to repeat 11th grade.
“I had missed out on too many days and my mother wasn’t the type of mom that goes to the school and sees what needs to be done. So I had to retake (the grade), and I was so upset because I was supposed to graduate when I was 16,” Hunt said.
Hunt’s mom had her at age 15, so her great grandmother played a large role in raising her. Looking back on her childhood, Hunt says she turned to drugs and alcohol to get rid of past trauma.
“I was raised by my great grandmother, so some things happened to me as a young child that I really couldn’t get over for years on; It was sort of like I found ways to suppress those dark feelings,” Hunt said.
After doing some things she wasn’t proud of, Hunt tried to find a job that she fell in love with. One day Hunt was in the shower and thought of starting a cleaning business. She remembers calling her friend and asking her if it was a good idea. Her friend said that she would be the first client, and now her cleaning business, Lord of Lords, is booming.
“I clean houses, I clean Athens Christian School, and I clean businesses,” Hunt said. “Lord of Lords actually helped me when I took my child, Christopher, out of Clarke County School District and put him into Athens Christian. The teacher that my son had offered me to clean there and now Athens Christian is my biggest client.”
The name for Lord of Lords comes from her strong belief in Christianity. After all of the trauma she endorsed, she turned to God. She continues to pray that God will help her in her job as a security guard.
“I just prayed when I got the security guard job and I asked God to lead me in everything that I do,” Hunt said.
There are some more difficult aspects of Hunt’s job as a security guard. She said that it breaks her heart when she hears about negative things that go on inside the school.
“Going on the walkie talkie and thinking about someone who just wants to be here to get their education. And God knows what they must be feeling or what they must be going through when they hear adults running or fights or how they can’t go to the bathroom without smelling marijuana,” Hunt said.
Some students struggle with the procedures she has, like getting a slip from the office before leaving campus.
“It was difficult to explain to some students that the things that I’m doing are for their safety,” Hunt said. “Some told me to ignore the rules or some were disrespectful or cursed me out.”
Even though she sometimes gets upset with student behavior, Hunt simply tries to remain positive.
“That’s what makes this job so important to me because there are so many children that just need to know that somebody loves them,” Hunt said. “I think being at the front gate is a great responsibility to make sure that when people come in, whether it’s a child, parent, teacher or whatever, that they come in to an atmosphere where they feel welcome.”
