# My school's ultimate plan to prevent violence. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 16, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632 "2001-08-16T21:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632/21 "2001-08-17T23:36:49Z")
School ID’s won’t prevent school shootings. They can have other uses, however. As someone mentioned they can be used to deter and identify unwanted or unauthorized people on campus, but for this to be effective, the ID’s would have to be in plain view at all times, and this policy would have to be enforced by all school personnel consistently. It would also require a closed campus with a secure checkpoint where id’s are checked by security personnel as people enter. Having parents who both worked in high security situations (my father helped assemble icbm componants, my mom was a mail clerk for the IRS), I’ve seen such systems in effect, and, if managed in a professional manner by professional security personnel, they can be very effective. Few schools have either the desire or the money to take such a system far enough for it to be effective, nor do I think that it is desirable in most situations. There are some practical uses for school id’s that have nothing to do with security. The jr. high schools in our district us id cards with bar codes on them to track all sorts of things. If a student is late for school, no need for a secretary to record arrival time in a book, she just takes the card, scans it, and the comuter takes care of the rest. Likewise leaving early. Lunch records are kept this way, eliminating tickets and having a cashier during lunch. Students pay a cashier in the office, and the card operates like a debit card when getting lunch or buying things at the school store. It also functions to track library books and computer lab access. Basically, it decreases paperwork and lets a computer do things a person would otherwise have to do. ---
**Author:** ![Winkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@Winkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winkie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632/22 "2001-08-18T01:01:39Z")
A slightly different situation, but an interesting result anyway … As part of a previous job, I was a guest speaker in classrooms in our local schools. One of the larger elementary schools instituted a “good citizenship” program. Part of that program was that each student and teacher wore an easily readable name tag all of the time. The name tag eliminated anonymity – anyone around watching what you were doing always knew your name. I found keeping the chaos to a minimum during my presentations much easier when I could actually address the kids by name. “John, please stop talking so other people can hear.” “Katie, please don’t put gum in her hair.” etc. Of course, this was an elementary school, where maybe noone had thought of stealing someone else’s tag yet. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632/23 "2001-08-18T01:15:38Z")
computers being what they are…it wouldn’t be that hard to make a fake id. Some of those kids were making bombs, for goodness sakes. an id would be cake walk. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632/24 "2001-08-18T17:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Number Six_ > **As someone mentioned they can be used to deter and identify unwanted or unauthorized people on campus, but for this to be effective, the ID’s would have to be in plain view at all times, and this policy would have to be enforced by all school personnel consistently.** This year they are required to be worn on a lanyard and displayed picture out “on the front chest area.” Last year they were required to be above the waist and in the front. One of the problems IS enforcement, as half the teachers don’t care about the policy, and I’ve NEVER been stopped in the hallway (even BETWEEN CLASSES) for not having my ID. > [@](#): > > **It would also require a closed campus with a secure checkpoint where id’s are checked by security personnel as people enter.** Yes. Our school IS closed campus, and all housed in one building. The problem here is that there are no less than three doors open to students in the morning, and many doors unlocked during the day. > [@](#): > > **There are some practical uses for school id’s that have nothing to do with security. The jr. high schools in our district us id cards with bar codes on them to track all sorts of things. . . .snip{examples of lunch debit cards, tardiness, library, and computer lab use}/snip. . . Basically, it decreases paperwork and lets a computer do things a person would otherwise have to do.** HERE’s what I would like to see our IDs used for. We have student numbers, and barcodes. We do use them in the lunch room (though they aren’t REQUIRED, and people just trade them around if someone forgets theirs). I don’t know what they actually DO though, since they aren’t used like debit cards. You have to have one in the library where they take your number when checking out a book. Other than that, though, they aren’t used for anything. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Tamex_ > **They tried to implement an “student-wearing-ID” policy at a school around here, and, not surprisingly, the students threw a fit. I was surprised, however, when a student was quoted in the paper calling the practice “humiliating”. Will they think it’s so “humiliating” to wear an ID in their future workplace? Wearing IDs in school may be “pointless” (especially if it’s spottily enforced), but I’m not sure it’s humiliating.** No, it’s not humiliating to be forced to wear the ID. It IS humiliating, however, to receive your first detention ever or be a “good kid” and get called down to the dean’s office simply for forgetting to wear a useless little piece of plastic. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Bad News Baboon_ > **computers being what they are…it wouldn’t be that hard to make a fake id.** Many have. Especially temporary ones (if you forget yours at home, you buy a “temporary one” for a dollar. It’s a photocopy with a sticky backing sheet. I never tore off the backing sheet and just taped it on me so I could use it over and over. Still have a spare in my wallet). ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632/25 "2001-08-19T07:40:49Z")
I go to a catholic school, kinda on topic. School uniforms, full of crap. They are so strict, once I had an untucked shirt, 1 hour of sitting in a room an hour after school ended doing NOTHING! sitting. Catholic schools and most catholics suck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-schools-ultimate-plan-to-prevent-violence/76632.md?page=1)