In the world of school security, a small plastic card has played a major tool in ensuring student safety: the student ID. For schools across the nation, including SHS, the wearing of student IDs is more than just the dress code policy. It’s a critical component of a strategy to protect students and staff members.
Student IDs serve multiple functions in the school environment. Primarily, they help staff quickly identify who belongs on campus and who doesn’t. With SHS having over 2,400 students, this simple tool helps the administration efficiently do just that.
“If there was an emergency or crisis, or (we) got a report of an intruder in the building, we can visually identify that person without a lanyard,” Assistant Principal Matt Weimer said. “But if 90% of our students are without their lanyard, then it’s much harder.”
Student IDs do much more than just identifying if students should be in the building or not. Students can scan their IDs in the library when checking out a book instead of typing out their six digit ID number.
“It makes lunch go faster,” Weimer said. “They are just scanning their IDs instead of typing their six digit number. It just makes things efficient all around.”
To further ensure school safety, SHS is equipped with two school resource officers. They serve as both protectors and mentors, making sure the school is a safe environment for students to learn and build connections instead of worrying about their safety.
School resource officers have many duties to perform during the school day. They are to ensure the safety of the school and the students. But it’s more than that.
“I think the expectations for us, from admin, is to be seen by not only students, but teachers,” SHS Resource Officer Jeffrey Patterson said. “Be proactive, be seen. (We should be) getting out of the office and not looking for trouble but being out there so if it does happen, we can address it.”
Another recent update in school safety is the weapons detection system. SHS detectors are different from the traditional metal detectors, as they detect the density of objects instead of looking for metal. They are made to spot and cancel out potential threats before they escalate.
“The weapons detection system is not supposed to detect weapons,” Patterson said. “It’s supposed to detect density, that’s why it goes off on crazy things.”
Some students find the weapons detection system more of a hassle than a benefit to our safety. Students sometimes have to wait outside of doors in the pouring rain or in the snow just to get inside of the building to walk through the detector.
But the weapons detection system is not the only problem they have. Many students believe that wearing their school issued ID and lanyard is not beneficial to their education. They believe that they do no good to our school safety. However, there are different opinions on this topic.
“Most people think it’s dumb,” junior Giovanni Miranda said. “I think it’s a good addition, especially in this day and age.”
Although there is controversy over these policies, the motivation behind them is the safety of students. Administration and school resource officers will continue to enforce these activities all to ensure this safety.
