ID’s keep out trespassers
Cartoon by Margaret Cross
September 25, 2009 • written by April Matthews
Filed under Opinions
Numerous schools across the country, including Memphis City Schools, have begun requiring students to carry school ID’s with them at all times.
This process enables administration and faculty members to keep track of who should be allowed on campus and who is trespassing. The bar codes on the ID’s also help teachers and administrators identify, keep track of, and discipline students more efficiently and effectively.
MCS uses PlascoTrac, a system which helps faculty and staff keep track of tardies and any misbehavior or violation of school policy just by scanning the students’ ID. Students’ entire records are in the system, and whenever their ID is scanned the record pops up.
As a result of using PlascoTrac, MCS’ overall attendance rate has gone up, while their truancy rate has decreased. The system identifies at-risk students, who have had several tardies, absences, or policy violations, and issues them the appropriate papers for their misdeeds, such as letters to parents, detention slips, or suspension forms.
Having access to these records also helps teachers and administrators determine how best to help students modify their behavior.
This system would greatly benefit both Bartlett and SCS as a whole. Instead of checking into the attendance office, students could go straight to class and have their teacher scan their ID to log a tardy into the computer. Students would never have to go all the way to the attendance office and miss out on valuable class time just because they were a few minutes late to school.
In addition to keeping up with tardies and policy violations, this system would be great for helping the schools to call students by their names.
The use of student ID’s would also weed out any intruders who may attempt to trespass on the campus. Bartlett’s open campus is easily accessible by the public, so troublemakers could easily pretend that they attend Bartlett. Without ID’s how would someone be able to tell if they are really a Bartlett student or not?
If the school system really wants to protect its students and cut down on the problems we are having or any problems that may occur in the future, it should seriously consider this program.
David Pickler, SCS Board of Education chairman, says that they are not currently considering student ID’s because the costs are prohibitive and the benefits are uncertain. However, he does say that they are focusing on controlled access, sex offender identification, and surveillance cameras in addition to personal electronic device controls.
Principal Mac Hawkins believes Bartlett is a very safe place and security is not a problem; therefore, the need for student ID’s is not high. However, he says the idea is being considered.
“School ID’s are a good idea and we are discussing developing a plan that could make them more useful at Bartlett,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins and Gary Gitchell, SCS Safety and Security Director, are currently discussing developing a plan to make ID’s more useful at Bartlett and hopefully, once they have that plan in place and it is presented to the board, the board will then be considering ID’s as an option.
All things considered, PlascoTrac would be a great addition to our school system. Hopefully, PlascoTrac or a similar system will be launched in the near future.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!