One of the significant policies that encompass many closed campuses in the United States of America is the utilization of school identification cards. Closed schools are systems that do not allow students to leave campus any time of the day from lunch break or going to the hospital without the permission and assistance from the professors ("What Does “Closed Campus” Mean? – The Prospector"). ID refers to cards that offer identifying data regarding individuals, as their full names, age, address, and color of eyes or hair, and usually contains a photo used as identification at a place of school ("The Definition of Identification Card"). The card is often produced by the students at the entrance of the gate and shown to the guards. The policy is always compulsory to all the students and staff members in the majority of the closed campuses. In discussing the issue of the ID cards system, several questions have been considered such as what role Identification cards play in the closed schools and their advantages? What problems do they bring, and how should they be solved? Is the ID card policy in closed campuses limiting student’s privacy and not worthy of implementation? Thus, in this paper, reasons that show why the ID card policy should be implemented in closed campuses such as it enhances security, assist in the running of school operations, instilling obedience in students, and helps in rewarding and punishing students are well discussed with examples offered.
The Role Played by Identification Cards in the Closed Campuses and their advantages
School Identity cards offer safety and security to the students and staff (Williams). Closed campuses have placed the policy mandatory in their institutions whereby to access the school's services and even enter the gate; the guards must ensure that ID cards are produced. The safety measure is to provide no stranger that can cause harm to those inside is allowed. Also, this also limits people from entering the institutions with firearms or other weapons that they can use to create damage. ID cards assist in reducing mass shootings in the United States schools. Recently, various incidences whereby students have been shot on the campuses by their fellow students or unknown members have risen. It has been five months since we began 208; however, there have been more than 20 shootings in institutions whereby some students were killed or injured. The average is around 1.25 school shootings in a week. For instance, On March 20th, two girls were shot by their fellow armed students at Great Mills High School in Maryland before a school resource officer prevented him from shooting more other people by gunning him down. One student succumbed to injuries while the other one, 16 years of age, Willey Jaelynn, died two days later after being removed from the life support (Ahmed, and Walker). The ID card policy helps in keeping individuals who may pose a threat to the lives of the students and staff out of the campuses.
The ID card also assists in the management and running of daily activities of the institutions. They are used for many purposes within the campuses such as in library or meal cards. Closed institutions do not allow students to get out of the school to buy their lunch. The action is placed to protect the students from eating foods outside the institutions, which may be poisoned or risky to their health. The meals also offered are also of balanced diet with students eating food that have low calories or sugars to boost their health progress and their academic performance. The meal cards also assist the students in placing their money into good use, for instance, paying for food on a monthly basis saves their time in carrying cash daily that could be lost or used in other leisure purposes, leaving them hungry during lunch breaks. Library cards also assist libraries in keeping track with the books that the students borrow or read. The IDs are useful to students since they can obtain the books and other reading materials any time they want then they can return them after finishing with them. They also assist the librarians in knowing the students who have misplaced some items thus paying to enable other students to use the books again.
The school identification cards are also used in rewarding or revoking privileges of students in the closed campuses (Williams). The cards usually offer the students information such as their places of residence, phone numbers, and classrooms thus in case of any mismanagement or awarding of the learners; they can be easily tracked. For instance, in rewards, departments can reward students who perform better in academic or sport-related activities in getting free meals in a semester or accessing other sections of the institutions, which require payment. Also, when it comes to punishments, students who might have broken the library rules by abusing the librarians, making noise while others are studying, or lost some books are usually fined in their cards. They can also be limited from entering the library or borrowing reading materials until they change their behavior or replace the books that they lost.
Identity cards assist teachers in knowing the student body in terms of their names and personalities. The cards contain the names of the learners thus lecturers finding it easy to locate them quickly. Calling students by their names makes, those teaching them establish deeper connections with every student. People tend to feel loved or a sense of belonging when they are referred by their birth names of which the policy offers (Thibaut).
Identity cards also assist in instilling obedience to the students. Learners are always respectful knowing that their moves are being monitored thus behaving morally. The cards usually have their details such that when one student misbehaves, he or she cannot accuse their fellow learners falsely since the card is the proof that they committed the purported act (Thibaut). With the cards, morals among the students will be built who in turn in future will become very much respectable individuals at work due to the obedience that they got from campuses. Obedience is earned and not learned, and with the policy offering such an opportunity, a brighter future exists for all Americans.
Problems that the Policy brings
Identity cards make some students feel insignificant since they can only be identified through the cards but not without them. The identity cards have names of the students thus when a teacher or a guard wants to refer to a student; they have to look closer to the student's card. That can be irritating especially to students who are emotionally sensitive. Every citizen of the US is usually entitled to their privacy thus with institutions limiting students the privilege makes the policy weak and not all round. The system prepares some students feels as if they are robots or objects that have to wear a tag everywhere to be recognized. The strategy makes the school environment seem like a jail whereby every prisoner is known by his or her card ("Problems with School Ids”).
Professors also create more distractions in the classrooms and the access points such as the gate or library when it comes to lost IDs or cards placed in locations that are inappropriate (Thibaut). The positions waste a lot of time that could be used in teaching the students meaningful things. Students can also be denied entrance into the school compound when they forget to carry their badges; hence, limiting their class work performance due to missing out of some classes or late arrivals. Similarly, that applies to access of reading materials in the library whereby one can be denied a chance to read with the rest of the student body when she or he does not have their card; hence, limit fair competition in academic performance.
Identity cards also interfere with students’ liberty and privacy rights (Redhage). Some cards have the chip implanted inside them, which assist the institutions to track the student’s movements quickly without having to see them physically. Such cards infringe upon the students' constitutional rights. The first amendment offers every United States citizens whether they are students or not with the freedom of movement, speech, and other liberties. However, with schools keeping track of the students, their rights are limited in the name of security.
Is the ID card policy in closed campuses limiting student’s privacy and not worthy of implementation?
Constitution rights of students are essential in their daily operations, but not as much as their lives. When their security is threatened, with campuses allowing entrance of everyone into the school compound without checking them whether they are armed or not, students and the staff members lives lies at risk. The recent shooting in schools has proved that the card system is crucial in ensuring safety since most of the incidences have occurred with students bringing guns into the institutions and when their friends anger them, they pull out their guns to shoot them. Majority of the scenarios have ended up with those being shot being injured, killed, or the shooters being shot by the rescuers or shooting themselves to avoid punishments. As per Tinker v Des Moines case, whereby a student sued her school for violation of her constitutional rights, the Supreme Court made a holding that students should always leave their constitutional rights at the gate and let the laws of the institutions guide them (Chemerinsky 527). Moreover, according to also one lawyer who is a parent, he stated that “the overarching interest in protecting children and providing safe environments for learning far outweigh some compromise in a student’s expectation of privacy” (Redhage). That shows how security is more critical when compared to the rights of the students regarding the IDs. Indeed, with many young lives being lost due to the current mass shooting that is happening in the majority of schools in America, Identity Card Policy should be introduced to all the institutions to enhance safety and security.
Identity cards also contribute to the compliance of students in the campuses, which is the most significant key to proper academic performance. When their privacy is protected, and their morals are wanting, the consequences will lead to poor grades due to the students disrespecting their teachers in their classroom and also bullying other students thereby instilling low self-esteem in them. For instance, the ID cards have proved to be a success in enhancing obedience among the prisoners in the ADX Florence Federal Prison (Thibaut). Administrations have pointed out how the hyperactive labeling have contributed immensely to the safety in the prisons and also in obedience of the inmates. In prison, the results show that people’s visible identification is the core goal of secondary education and that those who have been labeled are usually inclined to obedience in their settings. The example of how the policy works in prison does not mean that students should be treated like the prisoners, but to illustrate how the identification system works with the ADX Florence Federal Prison being the evidence. Therefore, campuses should use ID cards to enhance obedience and safety of the students and other staff.
Conclusion
The institutions' identity card enforcement is a good policy in the United States that benefits the students and the staff members. The cards are crucial in offering security to the institutions whereby the guards can differentiate between students and non –students thereby preventing those who may have intentions of causing harm from entering. The card system also helps the guards in ensuring that no student or staff bring firearms into the school, which has created the recent mass shootings in the US leading to injuries and deaths. The cards also assist in running the campuses operations such as in meal and library cards. Meal cards assist students in accessing their lunch since they are not allowed to get out of the compound while library cards utilized in borrowing of reading materials. Also, the IDs help in rewarding students who perform better in classes or sports while at the same time in punishing those who go against the school rules such as stealing or losing books. The cards also assist in building a good relationship between the teachers and the learners brought about by the reading of the names in the cards. The identity cards also instill acts of obedience among the students since the cards offer the details regarding them; hence, the only option is to behave well to avoid being punished. Nonetheless, in spite of the roles played the policy that has advantages, it has several problems such as making the learners feel insignificant because they are only identified with their cards, and without it, no one will call out their names. The cards bring many distractions in classrooms especially when the students lose them or place them in inappropriate locations, which will be countered with the teachers following up on the issue. The policy also infringes on the constitutional rights of the students since their privacy will be invaded. Some cards have a chip inserted inside them that detect the movements of the students; the act limits their freedom of movement. In spite of the problems associated with the policy, security and lives of the students surpass the issues related with the invasion of privacy, making the students insignificant, and creation of distractions by the teachers regarding the placement of the cards.
Works Cited
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"The Definition Of Identification Card". Dictionary.Com, 2018, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/identification-card. Accessed 4 May 2018.
"What Does “Closed Campus” Mean? – The Prospector". Theckmprospector.Com, 2018, http://www.theckmprospector.com/?p=414. Accessed 4 May 2018.
Ahmed, Saeed, and Christina Walker. "There Has Been, On Average, 1 School Shooting Every Week This Year". CNN, 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/school-shootings-2018-list-trnd/index.html. Accessed 4 May 2018.
Thibaut, Mason. "Identifying The Problems With Requiring Students To Carry ID". The Odyssey Online, 2015, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/identifying-problems-requiring-students-carry-ids. Accessed 4 May 2018.
Redhage, Eleanor. "Tracking Devices On Student ID Badges: An Unconstitutional Violation Of Privacy Or A Legitimate Safety Precaution?". Campbell Law Observer, 2013, http://campbelllawobserver.com/tracking-devices-on-student-id-badges-an-unconstitutional-violation-of-privacy-or-a-legitimate-safety-precaution/. Accessed 4 May 2018.
Chemerinsky, Erwin. "Students do leave their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gates: What's left of Tinker." Drake L. Rev. 48 (1999): 527.
