School staff should know who belongs by wearing id badges

The Daily Courier


Prescott High School is implementing, effective Sept. 8, a policy of having teachers, staff and students wear identification badges at all times. They must be displayed, not kept in a pocket, wallet or purse.

District employees with whom The Daily Courier spoke cited the need to meet North Central Accreditation guidelines for security. Students saw it as "no big deal" once they learned the idea was to keep the campus safer for the students.

Principal Totsy McCraley said the ID badges would allow everyone to know with whom they are talking. Teachers will be able to greet students by name as they enter the buildings, and students will be able to learn each other's names and what grade they are in.

What happened to knowing your students and colleagues as a matter of course? In our experience, even schools with large student populations have had little problem with this by having teachers and staff in the halls between classes and getting to know their charges.

Online comments at dCourier.com have likened the badges to the World War II era of Nazis requiring Jews to wear yellow stars for identification.

We do not believe it rises quite to that level; however, the flaw comes with NCA officials thinking this is a good thing - when more of a community environment is what we need.

School officials said with ID badges in plain sight, they will know who does and does not belong on the campus.
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