I’ll admit, I, along with the majority of my fellow classmates whom I started this school year with, held a riveting hatred for the ID policy. Ugly photos and lanyards that don’t match the fit, students collectively agree that the requirement and enforcement of student IDs is futile.
Although many students understand where administrators are coming from, they have their own safety concerns. According to the U.S Government Accountability Office, more than half of school shootings are committed by students attending the school. This statistic unfortunately contradicts the reason for IDs. Mentioned multiple times throughout the class meetings on Friday the 18th of August, quick identification of all the beings and objects walking into the school is a paramount concern. However, once a threat enters the school and is identified, the threat has already breached the security of the school, making any sort of interception practically useless.
Students are passionate about the situation. Many believe that the obligatory ID mandate is “useless and used as [a] method of fear mongering” (Stella Vangelis ‘24).
Last year, we can all agree that the enforcement of IDs was unsuccessful. Promising $5 Sweet Cow ice cream just isn’t enough motivation, and the school recognized that. This year they’ve cracked down. They knew positive reinforcement didn’t work, and the newly designated punishments will likely just cause anger and discontent, so what should we do?
The topic of IDs has been a heated concern since last year, with students and administrators locked into a dogfight. Natheless, not all students are biting back, Mei O’Neil along with a decent population of other students believe that “it is not a big deal to wear them.” The “carefree” attitude has clearly risen in popularity, as the majority of students on any given day, are indeed wearing their IDs.
New-ish principle of Boulder High, Dr. Alana Morales, took time out of her busy-beginning-of-year schedule to sit down and have a meaningful conversation about IDs with me. Expressing her opinion and facts of the ID “situation.” Throughout the interview Dr. Morales mentioned that she believes it is critical to, “…share the reason why [they] are making the decisions [they] are making.” One of the students main concerns is safety, luckily, Dr. Morales understands where they are coming from, mentioning, “[I] know IDs are not going to prevent these situations” while talking about the numerous perilous situations we went through last year, “but they certainly could’ve helped.” During the first swatting call, approximately 130 students were affected. During the mass evacuation, in order to ensure each pupil and professor was accounted for, it took almost an hour. Who knows how much longer it would have taken if all 2,100 students were in school. Dr. Morales believes it would have been much quicker if we all had IDs. “Time is crucial” in an emergency situation, the quicker the authorities can identify the members of BHS, the quicker they can eliminate the threat.
During the class meetings, IDs were mentioned multiple times. Punishments were written out and explained in great detail to all of the students. Community service for the first few offenses, then being sent home after a third offense. Many students were happy about this “punishment”, and honestly I’d have to agree. But that is not what this punishment is, there is a whole lot more to it. After the multiple hours of “School Beautification” a conversation will be the next step. “We don’t want you all to think we are ‘pain in the butt’ adults, we want you to understand our viewpoints and how this affects the community.” Rewards didn’t work last year, so administrators are hoping consequences and conversations will.
So should we wear our IDs? “We understand this is a big ask, but in the overall scheme of things-it really isn’t” Dr. Morales mentioned. Later, she told me a story about last year, when an individual from a different school got into Boulder High. Unfortunately, they were experiencing a mental health crisis, because of our quick and prepared security, they were intercepted before any harm was done to them, the school, or other students and teachers. “If we would have had IDs, identifying them would have been so much easier.” In the end, IDs are just there for student and school safety, administrators understand that it is not a perfect system, but it is a step in the right direction. Dr. Morales stated “we are all on the same team.” All of us are experiencing this together and we must understand each view point, even if we disagree.
