Students will never achieve full potential in an environment laced with fear. But will the students go out of their way to remain safe?

As of October 4th, 2022, Farmingdale students are required to wear their student IDs, visible at all times. Everyday we are reminded to wear them, but what do the students think? Well, the student reactions have not been on the positive side. Many people think the IDs should not be a priority, even calling the IDs “stupid.” Most students say they don’t feel like putting it around their necks or they just honestly don’t know why we really wear them. What’s also been going around  is that they are just irrelevant, which follows with the thought that people just don’t know why we wear them.

 Our principal Jed Herman says school IDs were not something that they have been thinking about only recently. After the tragedy of Parkland, superintendent Paul Defendini and the district came up with ideas for safety. For example, Herman says, “Increased security, guard booths outside, man traps and student IDs” were all discussed. It was told to the Farmingdale Schools community that schools were going to start with safety precautions, but Covid-19 got in the way. Herman says, “Covid happened, and so for those two years of Covid we kind of let [IDs] slide, because of the fact that we were remote and at half capacity and we wanted kids in the building to feel safe.” This year, everything went back to normal and the superintendent and other administrators revisited the topic. 

Does Herman have a reaction to the negative student feedback? Herman explains the importance of the staff to be able to identify the students that belong in the school. He says, “It becomes complicated to have over 1,700 students in the building everyday and expect staff to be able to ID them everyday whenever they see them. You always get the kid who says ‘you know me, you know me, I don’t need to wear it.’ And yes, I know you, and there’s probably 100 other teachers who know you, but there’s still another 200 that don’t know you. The fact that everybody else wears an ID, the students should have to as well. It would just show that you belong.”

While some students are voicing their criticism of the student IDs, it is clear that this decision was finalized with thought and consideration of the staff. The decision was not made to punish those who choose not to wear it, but to keep the school a safer place.

* Picture by Madison Sosnowski