Anyone who has passed through the hallway connecting Door H to Door O, on floor two, has most likely seen the “high-five guy” within the last few years at Lane. 

The person standing outside a classroom holding a jumbo blue high-five glove has been revealed to be CS teacher Daniel Stone, who has played a role in bringing attention to the counterfeit drug issue that was shown in an assembly on April 13. 

Fun was one of the reasons he started this gig, Stone said.

“I like to have fun and I like other people to have fun and I like to be ridiculous and spontaneous—I don’t know if it’s spontaneous anymore because I’ve been doing this for a while, but I mean why not? Why not do something weird and just goofy just for the sake of being in the moment,” Stone said.

Stone didn’t always have the oversized high-five glove though.

“I used to do [high-fives] a lot before the pandemic, without the big gloves, but then I stopped and now I feel comfortable enough being out in the hallways again doing high-fives,” Stone said. “I guess I was thinking of how much more ridiculous I could get? And I just thought yeah, ya know? High-fives with ridiculously oversized hands helps stand out really.”

However, Stone doesn’t only have a high-five glove. He has a banana suit, as well as a cobra, strawberry and hammerhead shark. 

“Might be bringing those back—it’s gotta be the right weather, can’t be too warm, can’t be too cold. It’s gotta be maybe just right,” Stone said.

Stone, who has taught at Lane for five years, said that he brought those out at his old school too.

“So I used to be ‘the high-five guy with a banana suit,’ but yeah the banana suit might be wearing a little thin these days,” Stone said. “I had a student my first year here, and this was back in 2018, that was talking to one of their friends on the bus and they said yeah ‘I got this really weird teacher, always wearing this banana suit,’ and the friend said, ‘oh wow at my old school I had a teacher who used to wear a banana suit all the time too, what’s their name?’ ‘Mr. Stone.’ ‘IT’S THE SAME TEACHER.’ “

Stone said he hopes that people can realize that they can have fun any time.

“I don’t think I’ll be changing lives with that necessarily, but if I can put a little smile on somebody’s face just by doing something ridiculous, then awesome, mission accomplished,” Stone said. “I want people to have fun, I want people to recognize that whatever they’re doing, whether they’re in school learning or they’re off to their job, that doesn’t mean that you need to turn that enjoyment of life off.”