Do You Feel Safe Yet?

Last year in one of my English classes, modern lit, we had to write about a "hot" issue. I wrote about the school IDs which they now make "mandatory" to wear. And last night or the night before, I was looking through all of my old homework on the computer, and I found it and am particularly proud of it (mostly), so I thought I would share. My dashes represent the school name, btw.

For the safety of the students? Yeah right.

As you walk through the halls of ------- High, what strikes you the most? The well-kept building? No. The school-spirited students? No. The amazing teachers? No again. How about campus security stopping students to demand, "Where's your ID?" Yes, yes I do believe that's it. The students being badgered all day about those little plastic cards with a picture. And why? To keep our school safe, of course.

Because those little IDs really cut down on school violence, don't they?

One Wednesday morning, actually, I was stopped by one of the deans. Where's your ID? In my pocket. Put it on.

Lesson number one: ------- wants you to be miserable. I was in a good mood that day, my morning had gone really well and I was just headed to hang out with friends, so apparently I agreed with a little too much enthusiasm. He immediately turned around, "That's it! Come to the dean's office right now!"

"But I'm putting it on..." Which was probably the first time I'd put it on since school started.

"I don't care, come on!" I went, because the fight wasn't worth it to me, but later when my parents found out, they were pissed. At the school. For punishing me while I was complying. They even came down to talk to the deans and try to fight it, but to avail.

Because according to district policy, students must display ID cards at all times on school grounds and at school activities. If they don't, warning first, then lunch detail, Wednesday school, and finally suspension. But anyone refusing to wear their ID won't care about having to pick up trash during their off hour. And a suspension would be welcomed for a chance to sleep in.

The main problem, however, is this: I wasn't caught for easily a month and a half into school. For that long I had been not wearing my ID. Aren't these supposed to make you safe by preventing strangers from roaming the halls? Granted, I'm not a stranger and I do attend -------, but that's a full month and a half that I would've been free to attack the school. And there are some students who still haven't been caught without IDs.

Do you feel safe yet?

It's not even just those not wearing IDs. Some students simply don't like their picture, so they cover it with stickers, effectively turning the ID to a random piece of plastic. Other students switch IDs with opposite sexes, even with other school's students. A complete stranger could come to the school with a lanyard and a random plastic card, and they're in.

Do you feel safe yet?

The problem doesn't even need to go outside our own school. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Harris and Klebold students at Columbine? Couldn't they have shot up their school just as easily while wearing their IDs on a school-issued lanyard?

Do you feel safe yet?

If we all wear our IDs, does that honestly make the school a safer place? Maybe our time should be spent learning about not discriminating and accepting others' differences instead of being wasted by wondering where our IDs are. Maybe, for once, the school should focus on winning the war, not the battle.