The recent distribution of student ID provides students with a sense of security, and the color-coded lanyards provide confirmation that those roaming campus are gulliver students. Focus on safety should also include security outside the schools perimeter.

It’s easy to keep the students on campus safe. Locked doors and IDs do make us feel safer on campus, but that doesn’t change what is happening outside of school that can negatively affect us. While we understand that they are important for identification, if these IDs begin to serve for different purposes such as opening doors in the future with the barcode on the back, it’s only inviting more trouble into the school. For example, if an intruder comes into school and harms one student he can easily take his/her ID from their neck and begin to open classroom doors causing more harm.

It’s best to keep the ID’s as low-tech as possible just as they are now. Now that the students and faculty have clear identification, it’s important to focus on the identity of people wanting to enter the school. For example, asking someone coming into campus why they are here, who they are here for, and asking for some form of their identification.

It’s not just about the ID’s, the locked doors, or any other safety precautions the school has been working on but most importantly it’s about being alert. This doesn’t apply to just the students and faculty inside school, but also the security guards standing outside and by the gate. As the back of our ID’s state “see something-say something” is something we need to keep thought of.