This school year, a new rule has been implemented that requires all Wantagh students from elementary to high school to wear identification on a lanyard around their neck. Although this is the school’s way of protecting us given the rise in the amount of school shootings in recent years, some argue against this policy.
Some argue it is an infringement on students’ rights. Not only that, but they also claim that the pictures are outdated, and since the school doesn’t individually check every students’ IDs before they walk into the school it’s very easy to create a fake I.D, put it on the lanyard and simply walk in. Others argue against the inconvenience.
A company that creates student IDs, InstaCard, agrees with these points, stating the cons of inconvenience, lack of student privacy, and security issues. Not only that, but it’s giving perfectly behaved students detentions just for forgetting, and if you lose it you have to pay five dollars.
It puts unnecessary stress on students to keep up with bringing their I.D.s every school day, with the threat of getting detention and losing the privileges that the school has to offer. Not only that, but it really brings in the prisoner feel to the school, since I.D.s mean that all students will be more closely monitored, and could possibly breed mistrust in students towards the school.
Finally, there are better things that the school could spend money on rather than I.D.s and scanning devices. The money spent on the lanyards and scanning devices could be put to arguably better use on programs for the students, or other security measures that don’t put added stress on students.
In conclusion, the implementation of I.D.s should not have been thrust upon Wantagh students for the sake of student privacy, the environment of the school, the student’s trust in school security, and the budgetary opportunities for more important programs and security upgrades.