Student IDs are a joke at Raider Nation, with only a fraction of students even having their own dedicated IDs. All teachers are issued a State ID from the county office that has their name, picture and a chip that allows them to open the school doors. Students are not granted the luxury of an ID unless they are part of a very specific class, such as journalism, yearbook or IE2, and these “IDs” are just unlaminated pieces of paper.
When interviewed, teachers such as Heather Transue, Melissa Beanblossom and Heather Moore all shared sentiments that students should have their own IDs. Moore also shared her thought that it could be used to check out books, check into school and even buy lunches. While this idea would be a radical change for the school to do all at once, even just plastic cards would be cheap to produce for students with later updates available to integrate in later school years.
Student’s with IE2 as a class period, which is just a period for upperclassmen to have free time to do schoolwork, also lamented that the student passes seemed useless, with many students admitting that they had either lost theirs or thrown them away. This would be detrimental to the students, as they’re not supposed to check in without it, yet the workers at the front office often don’t enforce the need for the passes, making them utterly irrelevant.
An idea proposed by one such IE2 student, Rohani Nguyen, was that students should have their own IDs with distinctions for students who get in and out of school. She proposed that they could be different colors to go with different distinctions, such as IE2. Many students also wanted specific passes that could open and close doors, as going between the two buildings can be a major hassle for many students. These specific passes would have to be checked out to make sure that they are not lost, due to the danger in opening doors.
This door-opening pass along with all students possessing IDs would promote much more safety for students around the school. The individual IDs would also be convenient for the students and staff alike, with people not having to go out of their way to open the door for students who had been called to the office, counselor or any other reason.
