It was announced at both the freshman orientation and schedule pickups that a new safety policy would be put into place. This policy would have students only access the hallways through a new ID that would be handed out. The only question was, when are students getting these IDs? No one knew. After weeks of waiting and waiting, the new student IDs were finally delivered.
“I believe the IDs have been helpful and harmful at the same time.” senior Benjamin Antalek said. “I think while yes they can help identify who you are, they didn’t need to get brand new ones because we already had school IDs freshman and sophomore year.”
The IDs have already proved to be quite problematic for a multitude of students, as the IDs have made travel time between classes lengthier. It also leads to increased student buildup while they wait for someone to open the door with an ID.
“They [the IDs] don’t work for any doors on building 5, and it makes it slower to get into the hall when you don’t have your ID and you have to wait for someone to come open the door for you.” Antalek said. “It also makes it slower to get in because you have to take it out of your pocket, tap the scanner, then open the door as opposed to just opening the door.”
Even though the new policy was announced, students and staff were left uninformed about when these keycards were arriving. The new scanners and locks were not even in place yet. When the IDs were handed out, a mass amount of students had not received theirs. Mainly, due to a lack of a 5th period teacher or previously switching out of the 5th period class into a new one.
“I wasn’t the happiest with my ID being handed out late.” freshman Lucy Galliford said. “I was very disappointed in the school because I needed my ID and they wouldn’t give me my ID because I didn’t have a 5th period teacher, they didn’t assign a 5th period teacher.”
Getting these new keycards are not the only problem. The keycards could also impact what would happen during a school shooting. With the recent tragedy at Apalachee High School the concerns about safety at school and control over guns have heightened.
“This past week, a Georgia student brought a gun onto his campus and killed 4 people. So do I think the key cards are effective, not really. Real money needs to be put towards protecting students, teachers and staff.” English teacher Katherine Jucker said. “I get it, it’s a lot of money to consider if we really want to effectively protect our schools.”
The keycards are supposed to be a safety regulation. While this might be true, students have been facing problems with the keycards. It may be possible for everyone to get used to them as there is still an entire school year that is ahead. Only time will tell.
“I understand that the key cards are an attempt at making our campuses safe, but we need to do better.” Jucker said.
