The school year started and many policies proposed last year became reality, one of which requires all students to wear an ID on their person when in school. The basis for this is to protect students and make them feel safer.
Last year, a student from another Montgomery County school walked into the school and pulled the fire alarm. The situation prompted an ID policy to be introduced this year to try and limit those situations.
Every day, we enter the school through one of the three entrances, all of which are manned by our underappreciated security officers. Heavy groups form as students push through the single doors, leaving security unable to check if a majority of those students are actually carrying their IDs.
The temporary ID’s given to us only include our first and last names and the school year; however, no picture to go with it. Security and administration can’t put a name to three thousand different faces and we don’t expect them to.
When the actual IDs with pictures come in, it still doesn’t resolve the fact that they could be easily replicated. The policy and safety of arriving with IDs could work if you actually had to scan your ID to get into the building. This school is well funded to put this into place relatively easily.
We already have the technology to require the badges for entrance, considering how staff are able to use their badges to unlock the doors and the bathroom passes for the portables.
Despite the need for improvement, administrators and security guards alike believe that it’s already improving safety throughout the school.
“I think it’s a great idea and I think it helps students safely. It could be improved by students wearing them on [their neck],” security guard Anthony Williams said.
Despite the administration’s hopes, the ID policy proves to have holes in it regarding school shootings. Studies show that around 50% of school shooters currently attend or have previously attended the school.
This program in its current state is nothing but an illusion of safety. On many occurrences, students have been able to walk into the school without an ID at all. The assessment of whether or not students are wearing an ID is merely a filter to get out most of the threats.
![Social studies teacher Timothy Rodman holds a production factory simulation in his AP Microeconomics class. "Students remember running for class president or the mock congress or the production factory much more so than learning topics like circular flow," Rodman said. "[The simulations make learning] very tangible and real and then students down the road are able to use it."](https://www.wjpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_4420-1200x675.jpg)
