|
|
A new Culpeper County High School rule requiring students to wear photo identification badges at all times during school hours is meeting with mixed reviews.
"It makes you feel like you're in prison," said Laura Ames, a rising junior. "You have to identify yourself all the time like you're in trouble."
"Maybe it's a step toward getting the school under control, but I still think it's pointless," said Noel Spence, also a junior.
Pointless or not, wearing a photo ID around your neck will be the rule this school year, and students who don't have their badges displayed will be subject to disciplinary action.
"We're treating it like part of our dress code," said Culpeper High Principal Eric Porter.
That means a student receives a warning the first time the badge is not visibly displayed, with lunch detention and in-school suspension coming into play for subsequent violations.
As alluded to by Spence, the new regulation is being implemented to keep Culpeper High's exploding student population under control. No other county schools will require badges.
"It will help with the security and safety of all the students in the school," Porter said. "[A photo ID system] helps when you have that many kids."
"That many kids" is still an unknown number, but the closest guess is that about 2,100 students will be enrolled this fall in a school designed for 1,500.
With halls packed and classes being held in two (soon to be three) different buildings, teachers and administrators are finding it increasing difficult to figure out just who is who.
"We could have kids that have graduated in here or kids from other schools," Porter said. "This will help teachers identify students."
"I've had students that were misbehaving refuse to tell me their names," said veteran math teacher Nancy Lenz. "[Having students wear ID badges] gives you a certain amount of control if someone is doing something inappropriate."
Lenz admits, however, that she is not completely sold on the idea.
"I have mixed feelings," she said. "In some ways it seems impractical. I sometimes have a hard time getting my things together, and students may have a hard time remembering their badges."
And, as with any new concept, Lenz has no illusions that all students will embrace the ID-badge concept.
"I think there are going to be problems with it," she said.
Her principal agrees.
"It is something that students and parents will have to get used to," said Porter, who instituted a similar system while principal at Mary Persons High School in Forsyth, Ga.
"In the beginning [at Mary Persons] it was shaky because it was something new," Porter said. "A lot of people didn't understand why [we were doing it]. I found that after the first year, the kids will work with you."
Porter said that at Mary Persons, a student ID number that could be scanned was added to the badges to assist with buying books and cafeteria lunches.
"I plan to move in that direction here," he said.
No other large school system in the Fredericksburg area uses the badges, but Porter said his research shows that schools in North Carolina, Georgia and the District of Columbia are beginning to adopt them.
Initially, Culpeper's plastic badges will contain only the student's name and photo, but they will be color coded to indicate the students' grade level.
Within two weeks, all students should have ID badges and will be expected to keep them visible during the school day. Badges will not have to be worn after the final bell or during extracurricular activities.
The first badge will be free, but students must pay $5 to replace a lost or stolen badge.
Lenz, who has taught for almost 30 years, doesn't think that badges are an end-all solution to the student-identification problem.
"I'm concerned that [students] might start exchanging them just for fun," she said, something she recalls that teachers threatened to do when they were first required to wear employee IDs about 10 years ago. "I know it crossed my mind."
In fact, that happened during a graduation ceremony several years ago. When a CCHS teacher passed out from the heat, paramedics were trying to bring her back by calling the name on her badge--which belonged to another employee.
At least two fathers of students like the idea of using badges.
"I think it's great," said Tom Banks, whose daughter, Courtney, is a junior. "It will help keep somebody who is not supposed to be there out of the school."
Banks' only concern is that strangers may easily pick up names if students wear the badges outside of school.
Tony Majors, whose son, Kyle, is a sophomore, also supports the rule. "Anything it takes as far as safety is concerned," he said.
While most students interviewed saw the new badges as just another form of red tape, two Culpeper High girls had more personal objections.
"What if you're wearing this cute little outfit?" junior Brittany Mruk asked. "An ID badge hanging around your neck would ruin it."
Sophomore Kaitlin Nicholson foresees an even greater problem.
"What happens if you take a bad picture? You'd be stuck with a bad-hair day hung around your neck all year! Man, would that cramp your style!"
She conceded that in such a case, it might be worth $5 to lose the ID badge and have a new picture taken.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON:
