Since the start of the school year, Schreiber has been checking IDs every time a student enters the building. The main issue with these ID checks is that they are inefficient in that they slow the school day down. A secondary problem with this is that the enforcement of the policies is inconsistent each year. Schreiber usually begins the school year with frequent ID checks and stops within a few weeks. Many students hope to see change this year.
“Schools should always have consistent ID checks because it keeps our school safe and secure. However, the ID checks at Schreiber are often not efficient enough because there’s always a pile up of students at the main entrance,” said junior Jaylan Leila Naman Jellabi.
Since the ID checks were first enforced, there has been a constant crowd of people waiting to enter the main entrance. The buildup slows down students and causes many to arrive late to their classes, which becomes extremely frustrating, especially during lunch periods when there are always huge groups of people waiting to enter the school. This is because each person is only allowed to enter one by one because of the slow process of thoroughly checking each ID.
“In my opinion, the ID checking is only necessary in the mornings and not each time you leave and enter the building. I really dislike the ID checking at the front door because it takes up unnecessary time during the day, especially if it’s crowded,” says sophomore Marco Palacios.
On one hand, Schreiber’s ID checks do help keep our school safe and maintain an organized school district. If ID checks were to stay efficient, then safety in our school would increase significantly. If Schreiber created better solutions to the inefficiency of ID checks, students wouldn’t feel as strongly against them.
Some ways to improve the efficiency of ID checks could be the use of ID card holder lanyards during school. Students can attach these onto their backpacks which can greatly improve the efficiency of having to take their ID out of their backpacks. Another solution to improve the regulation of ID cards could be to have students check their ID cards inside school. This can reduce the crowding outside of school.
“Checking IDs in the front is pointless. How does it prevent anything bad from happening to our school? All it does is clog up the entrance and slow everything down. If I had the choice, I’d rather not have school ID checks,” says junior Charlie Bettan.
The rationale behind ID checks is to keep students safe and ensure a responsibility for the student to have their IDs on them at all times. But if Schreiber believes in this cause, why has enforcement been inconsistent throughout the recent years?
“I believe that checking IDs is a waste of time and isn’t actually working. I have been using my Dave and Buster’s game card and my old detective’s association card instead of my ID. This shows that ID checks don’t even protect the school. People that show their IDs waste 2-3 minutes every day, which often makes them late to their first period class,” said sophomore Lucas Valenzuela.
If the school really cared about our safety, the security guards would be thorough and actually check if students have the correct ID card. The lack of efficiency in the ID card checks every day has led many students to believe the checks do not actually work. The security guards must be more thorough with the checks and the administration should put more emphasis on the ID checks being efficient and consistent.