It is apparent that the past decade has called for new degrees of protection for high school students. Instances in history such as Columbine have made this evident. High schools such as my own have made an attempt at protecting our students by placing a tag upon the masses. Theoretically, no individual can enter and stay within the walls of High Point Regional High School without wearing an ID card around their necks. Despite the administrations best efforts, this tactic has been proven unsuccessful. This arbitrary approach to protect high school students is clearly ineffectual. Hence, students at High Point High School should not have to wear Ids.
Despite the school's hopes that the usage of IDs will protect us from those lurking on the outside peering into our school, the plastic cards of safety are unnecessary. The rules are blatantly defied every day. Seniors entering the school through the side doors are meant to have IDs displayed upon entering the building, but these rules have never been enforced. Even worse, there has never been an arbitrary rule marking the front door: the easiest way to walk into the school, where the masses enter from the buses. Any individual could easily waltz right into the school with a gun or a bomb, making IDs again, faulty.
Aside from the fact that most individuals can make it through an entire day without wearing an ID at all, it is common for students to borrow a copy of another student's ID and wear it in place of their own. Since no teacher or administrator actually checks what is displayed on the ID, this is easy. And as I did for the majority of the year, it is also possible to display between one half and three quarters of an ID, without a name or a face on it. Teachers and administrators accept this as a form of identification. Despite the underlying idea of keeping the students safe from intrusion during school hours, the enforcement of IDs is somewhat lackadaisical. This is especially true since the IDs server no purpose such as they would in a college setting: allowing students to enter certain rooms or buy meals. IDs at High Point Regional are meant only to be worn around the neck.
Lastly, it is also important to make note of the places in which wearing an ID have been made most important: mostly, just the lunch room. The cafeteria is the only place in the entirety of the school where I personally have been asked to put on my ID. This is simply because (as many teachers in cafeteria duty have proclaimed) so the teachers observing the students eat lunch do not suffer repercussions from the administrators. It is in this instance that IDs have been proven to actually be destructive. Because students are forced to wear the ID cards around their necks while eating, disasters have happened, such as jerseys destroyed because an ID card snuck its way into a pile of ketchup. Hence, it is clear that IDs are not only useless, but they actually have a negative affect as well.
Although High Schools should be making an attempt at protecting all students at the school with a universal tool, it is obvious that ID cards are ineffective. The rule that states IDs need to be worn at all times is arbitrary at best, as so easily avoided. Not only are these ID cards unnecessary, there are also cases in which they are harmful, having a negative affect. In short, students at High Point Regional High School should not have to wear IDs.
5 comments:
You mention that students may pass through the front door easily without identifying themselves and could carry a weapon. Are no metal detectors used? No backpack checks?
Have there been any trespassers discovered in the school?
No; no back pack checks and no metal detectors. It is all reliant on the idea that once students are inside the building and wearing their IDs, they are safe. I only make note of weapons as a possibility because that is basically the fear of our administration. And honestly, I have no idea if there have been trespassers discovered. Such a thing has not been make note of to the students. Regardless, I have no idea why a person would want to break into the school. But from what I understand, that is the concern.
I liked this blog, but for the sake of argument I think you could say that the sweeping generalizations take away. You said that the rules of entering the side door with an ID have never been enforced, but I know I have been told to put my ID on when entering through there multiple times. So maybe instead of saying never you could have said seldom. Just a thought. Other than that I agree with you.
LOVE YOU
Tripleaye,
I read your blog and I also marked it up in a Word document [After consulting Ms. Hassenplug, she offered to deliver you a copy of my annotations]. Most of my criticisms were leveled on form, not substance, and that is good because a) ideas are more important than their manner of expression and b) I am neurotic about style; thus, you can probably brush off most of the things I say, unless you want to sound like me (and, believe me, you don’t). The most significant criticism that I might repeat here is that sometimes the piece seemed a bit of what I call “clunky.” What I mean by this (usually used in reference to something I wrote) is that the sentences don’t always “flow,” or lead smoothly from one to another. To me, achieving “flow” is a more intuitive process that involves a lot of head-bashing and frustration, but I find that varying the sentence length, switching up the sentence structure, and avoiding repetition of words, phrases, and structures in general can help achieve a sound, a “flow” that moves the prose from a clunking collection of parts to a smooth, flowing unit.
The only remark I’ll make on your substance is that I found you to be a little ambiguous as to whether or not you thought ID’s had potential. In other words, could ID’s protect if they were implemented and enforced better? Say, for instance, we required ID’s at all entrances and created new ID’s with more visible pictures. Then, couldn’t this help us identify someone who doesn’t belong in the school (possibly someone dangerous?)?
Your piece is still good, and, with a few revisions, it has the potential to become great. You see, you have the most crucial part of writing behind you, that is, your ideas. For me, at least, when I write I kind of feel like Boxer trying to finish the alphabet--I can’t come up the rest of the ideas in the sequence. You have. The only thing you could do now is polish them off and tweak the form, which is what I would put as the easiest part.
Thank you, Monk, that was actually quite helpful. I do agree with what you said about IDs having potential; they do. This is something that I should have incorporated as well. SEC- I agree with you as well, never is much too hasty of a generalization- I think it may just be that teachers know I'm not going to put it on anyway.
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