The county-wide ID policy, which requires students and staff to show and wear their IDs throughout the day, was implemented in this school on Oct. 30.
The IDs for all policy, which requires students to show their ID when entering the building and to wear them throughout the day, has made its way into this school, after being piloted in other schools across the county. The requirement to wear IDs began Oct. 30, with a grace period for students till Nov. 11. IDs are now required to be shown and worn by all. The ID policy itself is,“ensuring that we have some check to know who is in our building and that they have a reason for being here. Schools have an interest in making sure that it is staff and identified students who come into your building, so your why, is to make sure there is some structure in place to verify that someone has a reason to be here, ” Principal Douglas Nelson said.
This policy stemmed from different factors, but a major one was students. Events from the 2023-2024 school year left students wondering how safe they felt in their school, and principals listened and took action. “At least as principal, I listened with intent, to students who were speaking specifically, and I remember this really was a part of talking points and testimony from students in second semester last year. Students were saying that they felt that things needed to be tightened up when it came to safety and security in the building, that’s what I heard, so these are the ways in which schools do that, ” Nelson said.
While the policy was rooted from student concerns, students may find it unnecessary and annoying. In the case of security threats, “It’s good, but I feel like it’s not going to do very much because security doesn’t really check your IDs,” senior Meera Menon said.
The other issue students find isn’t with the showing of their IDs, but the continual wearing of it on their person. County principals discussed the merits of students having IDs visible throughout the school day and agreed that wearing them was better than not. Although it is a part of the policy, few students are actually wearing their IDs throughout the day. “I feel like I’m seeing very few if any when I’m walking around throughout the day or during advisory and lunch. Currently I am not taking any action, but there are talks amongst the staff about getting more information from admin about what steps teachers should be taking,” math teacher Madison Swan said.
The ID policy has not only affected students, but has also affected staff and security. “I think the benefit is that security has the job of making sure they know who is in the building and that they have a reason for being here. I think this checkpoint puts a structure in place that they have their eye on anyway. It formalizes something they have been doing all along. The con on that is that you’ve got to now pull resources from the security team to put those chek locations in place, and now everyone else has had to adjust,” Nelson said.
