The purpose behind school IDs

by: Christyan Cimino, Josh Barbara, and Chris Daley
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School IDs, they are the big talk around the school. Do they have a purpose? Do they really work? Are they really keeping our school safe?

We had an interview with Wethersfield High School Principal Mrs. Siobhan O’Connor and Head of Security Mr. Mike Baribault to discuss the ID rule in our school. We asked where the idea for IDs originated. “It got a really big push after the Sandy Hook tragedy and different school security and violence incidents that happened across the country. Because before then we had no way of identifying students that came in, ID policies went throughout the country to show who belongs at schools and who does not,” said Mr. Baribault

Since then, WHS has been trying to increase the level of security in all schools and started with the IDs there. Mrs. O’Connor mentioned that she’s been wearing IDs since 1997 because of her job and that it will help us learn and get in the habit of having one in the future. In the student handbook it states, “All students are required to wear their ID on a lanyard on their person at all times.” 

As an eye witness in past years, students walk into school with different colored IDs, other kids IDs, and even other schools IDs. This is a real problem that needs to be solved. We are told that the IDs are for our safety, but if I can get into the school with an invalid ID, then who else can?

The ID policy is not perfect, but WHS notices that and is making measures to adjust. This year, they made significant cosmetic changes to the IDs. This year they made the background color of them blue. Principal O’Connor said, “The IDs are blue this year so it identifies that you are supposed to be here this year. Some of the school shooting incidents were involved with students wearing IDs from past years that have gotten in.” 

We know that the kids don’t like to wear our IDs because “It’s annoying,” or “it doesn’t go with our outfit,” and Mrs. O’Connor understands that. She is not trying to harp on us too much because then we won’t want to wear them even more. The administration would like us “to play a part in your own safety and security,” said Mr. Barabault. It’s a team effort. 

To that, we started talking about what they were going to do to help fix these issues. They started to talk about how the IDs go much further than just to make sure that you go to the school. The IDs are also used just in case a tragedy occurs, the authorities can identify us. 

All we wanted to show in this article is that we may not show it but we care about the IDs, we want to be safe, and we want to help. We want to inform the students about what the administration wants to do and we want to bring the student’s opinions to them too. There needs to be more communication between us and then more will be able to get done.