Back to School With Photo ID Badges

Along with textbooks, backpacks and binders, students at Murrieta Valley High School are sporting a new item in their back-to-school gear: bar-coded photo identification cards slung around their necks.

School officials have asked students to display the ID cards as a security measure at the sprawling, 4,200-student campus. The tags let staff members and students know who’s who and double as library cards, student activity passes and Internet access codes.

“I think it’s going to be a good tool in order to get to know the students and greet them, and it contributes to their identity as Nighthawks,” said Principal Renate Jefferson.

Visible ID badges have become a feature of campus security at schools from Boston to Santa Fe. Some San Diego-area schools now require students to wear badges, and the Los Angeles Unified School District may follow suit, said Willie Crittendon, administrator of school operations and safety.

Los Angeles high schools now provide voluntary ID badges, and may require students to carry or wear them this fall, he said. In an era of widely publicized school violence, the cards test the balance between students’ rights and safety.

School safety experts say the ID cards allow school officials to stem campus crime by distinguishing between students and unwanted visitors.

“The school district is trying to address who’s on their campus,” said Kenneth S. Trump, president and chief executive of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based consulting firm. “That’s a very legitimate concern after the school shootings in recent years, or even concerning schools as terrorist targets. You need to know who’s in your building.”

The badges have drawn protests from civil liberties advocates, who say they’re demeaning to students and may reveal too much private information. “Kids should not be labeled. There’s something very impersonal about wearing an ID tag around your neck,” said Liz Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

By contrast, Murrieta Valley High School officials say, the badges temper the impersonality of a large campus by enabling school staff to quickly acquaint themselves with students. “It gives us an opportunity to connect more with students,” Jefferson said.

The badges also may help ensure order on the bustling campus. The school’s staggered start and release times have created a continual flow of students. But with schedules printed on the badges, school officials can make sure students are in the right places at the right times.

On the first day of classes at Murrieta Valley High School last week, students wore the ID cards on bright red lanyards hanging from their necks, tied to their belts or looped over their back pockets. Some customized their badges by hanging them from straps printed with smiley faces or the words, “I love you.”

Students greeted the new program with a mixture of appreciation and grudging acceptance. “I think it’s better for us,” said freshman Jamie Piecukonis, 14. “It’s safer. In case anything happens to us, they’ll be able to ID us. And we can get to know people by their name tags.”

“I just don’t like it. I don’t like my picture,” said Melani Thead. But “it’s a good idea for safety,” she conceded.

Indeed, many students who said they disliked the badges objected solely on grounds of fashion. The red lanyards clash with their clothes, they complained, and the photos are unflattering.

“It just messes up your outfit. It doesn’t look good,” said freshman Kristina Lopez, 14, who wore her badge looped to her jeans instead of hung over her beige blouse.

Jefferson stressed that no student would face detention or suspension for failing to wear a badge.

“It’s the same thing as a dress code,” said Assistant Principal Mick Wager. “If you remind them, and you’re diligent, they get in the habit of wearing them.”

The ACLU’s Schroeder said badges printed with students’ Social Security numbers, or even student ID numbers, could constitute an invasion of privacy.

The Murrieta Valley High School badges were accidentally printed with students’ ID numbers, Jefferson said. The school recognized that error, though, and is offering students a special pen to block out that information, she said.

In future years, the cards will bear only students’ names; their ID numbers will be embedded in the bar code, Jefferson said.

But names themselves may be too much information to share, said Alison Albuquerque, whose 16-year-old son attends the high school.

“We have a big problem in this day and age with stalkers and child abductors,” she said. The badge “has their name, their picture. That’s all you need. One weirdo sees that picture, and they can stalk them.”

Others say the badges can help keep the school secure, as long as officials don’t treat them as a cure-all solution for campus safety. Campus security officers oversee school safety, and administrators keep a lookout during breaks and lunch periods, Jefferson said. The staff also watches entrances during arrival and release times.

But those efforts are not foolproof. In February 2001, a 17-year-old walked onto campus from a nearby high school and stabbed a 15-year-old student in the chest. The victim survived, but was hospitalized with injuries.

Jefferson said that single incident did not prompt the ID badge policy.

“If someone’s got a gun, [a badge is] not going to stop them from shooting you,” said John Scott, 16, who recently transferred to Murrieta Valley High from a Kansas school that also required ID badges. “It just makes it easier for security to know who’s from the school and who’s not.”