Will making high-school students wear photo identification in school solve "the problem of teen violence"? No, of course not. Are photo ID passes a frightening invasion of student privacy? Are they a paranoid overreaction to a few well-publicized but isolated incidents? Again, the answer is: No, of course not.
You don't dump trash in your own backyard. If someone is looking to cause serious trouble - vandalism, theft, intimidation or violence - they're more likely to do it where they won't be recognized, that is, in someone else's high school. Implementing a photo ID policy is a reasonable method of keeping strangers out of a school. (Another good way to keep strangers out of high schools is to make all students wear uniforms. But uniforms mark teens as creatures of the system even when they're off school property. Compared to uniforms, photo ID cards are a minor imposition on students.)
Photo ID policies are not Orwellian devices for thought control. They're little pieces of plastic. Students and pundits need to face the fact that kids don't run schools. You're required to attend school (up to a certain age), you are told which classes to take, what to read and, to a certain extent, how to behave. Photo IDs are simply a normal extension of the rules schools enforce so that classes and school activities can run smoothly.
While photo passes can't prevent fights from occurring outside school boundaries, they can help students feel a little bit more secure when they're inside the building, letting them concentrate on getting an education.
Eric Grant
ARE THESE CARDS A PANIC REACTION TO FEAR OF TEEN VIOLENCE?
