Student IDs have been an issue for some students. Staff in schools have been enforcing student IDs for many reasons, however many students refuse to wear their student IDs for other reasons as well. Students do not want to wear there IDs because they do not want to wear them around the school. It has been a struggle for both students and staff about wearing the weekend.
Staff have been enforcing student IDs for a number of reasons. The main one is to help staff know if a certain individual should be in the building or not. When students wear their IDs, staff can know that they are supposed to be in the building. Lindsay Martin-Nez said “IDs with photos can help teachers and staff quickly and easily identify students who are unfamiliar to them or may be on campus during unscheduled times.” Lindsay is the CEO of BadgerPass which collects evidence from people such as schools from schools across the country and writes articles about the problem.
Mainly, some school shootings have started when the shooter enters the building and staff are unaware that a random person has walked into the building suspecting it to be a student or in some cases staff member. Lindsay also wrote “Student IDs can help enhance school safety by identifying authorized personnel and preventing unauthorized individuals from entering school buildings.”
Student IDs can also help in case of emergency. When there is a student that is in need of help, student IDs can help first responders identify the student so they can help them. “In a crisis, time is of the essence, and identifying individuals can help emergency responders respond more effectively and efficiently.” Also, in some emergency such as evacuating the building, first responders can know if the people that are evacuating are students and are even supposed to be in the building before evacuation.
Student IDs can also help run tasks and events smoothly. An example of this is lunch lines. Lunch lines run so much faster when people have their IDs out by only swiping their Ids instead of having to type their code in which would take longer. Also for school sporting events, the lines for those can be long as well. Student IDs can also help schools run more efficiently by streamlining various administrative tasks. For example, schools can use ID cards to track student attendance, library book checkouts, and lunch purchases. This can help save time and improve accuracy, leading to a more effective and efficient school environment. Students with IDs can help make the line go by so much faster and can help staff running the event know if the person is a student or if it’s just a local fan watching the game. Lindsay Martin-Nez also writes “Student IDs can also help schools run more efficiently by streamlining various administrative tasks. For example, schools can use ID cards to track student attendance, library book checkouts, and lunch purchases. This can help save time and improve accuracy, leading to a more effective and efficient school environment.”
Some schools that are enforcing the student IDs are being enforced in open campus schools. The reason for these is open campus schools literally own up to there name. There are schools in which students and even people can come into schools whenever they want to. SPASH is an open campus school similar to a school based off an article. “Because Friends Seminary is an open campus located in the city, students and adults are constantly entering and leaving the school’s campus. For years, the security team and administrators had discussed the possibility of implementing an ID policy.” “It’s really a safety [issue for] a school that has an open campus policy for students and has so many different egresses – it’s just about safety,” said Erin Mumford, the Assistant Head of Upper School and a member of the Computer Science faculty.
Overall, student IDs can help make things easier or sometimes help staff and first responders too. It helps keep schools safe for students and staff. Especially SPASH since we are an open campus and a larger school. It helps prevent disasters that can happen within the school walls. So let’s keep our school safe.