School has just started back at Flour Bluff High School. While the start of a new school year often means the beginning of many changes, such as having to adjust to a new sleep schedule and having to balance school work and sports, there was one new change this year that took everyone by surprise. 

This change was, of course, the increased enforcement of an existing rule due to the tragically recent Uvalde school shooting that requires all students to wear their mandatory student IDs. This rule essentially says that all students are now required to visibly wear their student IDs above the waist at all times during school hours or risk disciplinary action. 

Both students and teachers had very mixed thoughts on the enforcement of IDs throughout the school because while some saw this regulation as a good thing, there were many who saw this rule as extreme and not a real solution.

“I don’t see the point in them. I don’t see how they help with security. The school should have better security in general…I think that having police on the school grounds helps and keeping the doors locked. I also think IDs should be worn only for the first six weeks. Because after that, teachers will be able to recognize if someone’s in their class that’s not supposed to be there,” said junior Makinley Browning.

 Browning was far from the only student with this mindset. 

“ I don’t think it’s actually helping, they’re so small and out of the way that like from a distance you couldn’t even see them, so I don’t get like how their actually helping anything. I don’t get like having one tiny picture tucked away in your clothing is helping keep us safe. It just feels unnecessary,” said junior Erin Harl. While Harl did acknowledge that she understood what the school was trying to do she was also worried that a potential intruder could just “Put on any ID and it’d look exactly the same”. 

While, at first, it may seem like the school’s opinions of ID cards are entirely one-sided, there are some who believe that the implementation of ID cards is a good thing. One of these people is Amy Brandewie, a teacher at the high school. 

“I think it’s great for security purposes and the safety of the students,” said Brandewie. “ I think that the IDs are a great first measure that should be involved in anything this school plans in the future. Any changes tend to encounter some sort of resistance at first but then get accepted, and since this change isn’t hard to comply with I think eventually everyone will get used to it.”

With all this in mind, it seems that the school has split up into two conflicting viewpoints for now, but only time will tell if students will either learn to accept these new rules or try to take action and come up with a new compromise that could make teachers and students alike feel safer and secure.