Middle and high school students will not get a break on wearing their identification cards after all.
After the Flagler County School Board agreed in June to change the policy and require students to carry their ID and produce it on request, but not necessarily wear it outwardly at all times, the board this evening reversed course and decided to let the old policy stand: all IDs must be worn at all times, or else the student will be subject to a visit to the dean’s office.
The change was partly the result of an email Colleen Conklin, who chairs the school board, received from a resident raising objections to the more lenient policy on security grounds. The more lenient policy developed in June because many students found themselves breaking their ID and no longer being able to wear it. They’d be stopped in hallways or in classrooms and, because the student code requires it, sent to the dean’s office for wearing the ID, even though they usually had it on their person. That resulted in students missing class time, even though they could produce the ID.
At one point Tuesday evening Conklin suggested adding wording to the new policy that would require that students wear the ID or produce it on request. Board member Trevor Tucker objected, saying that would be contradictory. “They can’t do both,” he said. They’d have to be required either to wear it or to produce it on request, otherwise the policy would be too confusing.
Winnie Oden, who handles security matters in the district, advised the board to keep the old policy, otherwise the more lenient one would miss the point of IDs in the first place.
The board voted 4-0 to revert to the old policy’s wording. (Andy Dance is traveling in the Northeast.)
The previous story is below.
After Relaxing Dress Code, District Now Eases ID Policy for Middle and High School Students
Jan. 21–Attention middle and high school students: you will not have to wear your school at all times in all places during school hours on school grounds.
When school reconvenes on Aug. 24 middle and high school students will only be required to show their ID on request from a school staffer. That means they’ll have to carry their ID at all times, but it can be in their wallet, their pocket or anywhere else out of view until requested. For students in grades 7 and up, the school ID will be the equivalent of a driver’s license, which no one wears but all drivers must have at the ready to show on request from police.
The Flagler County School Board is expected to ratify the policy change Tuesday evening after approving the change on June 2, and advertising the policy’s new wording since.
That change is to align with the code of conduct that was discussed at workshop regarding student ID and the code of conduct in May. It’s the latest in what has become an annual relaxation of certain aspects of the student code dealing with the dress code and other items students wear or carry.
In May, the board agreed to substantially relax the dress code for high school students starting this fall, a major concession to students—and to last year’s student board member, Michael Manning, who led the drive to relax the code.
For high school students, any reasonable attire now goes, as long as it’s pants and a collared shirt of any solid color, striped or plaid design, with generous allowances for certain t-shirts as well (team jerseys, logo shirts representing teams or clubs, school shirts), which they can wear any day of the week. Last year, they could only wear such t-shirts on Fridays or “spirit” days.
The more relaxed dress code is the result of suggestions from school staffers and some school board members who have been looking to reduce the amount of time teachers have to spend policing clothes. The same approach is behind the more relaxed ID policy, the policing of which wasted a lot of time without appreciable benefits to schools or students.
Board members, however, disagreed in June when the administration first presented the new proposed dress code’s schedule of punishments, finding it in some cases too immediately harsh.
For example, in high school, the administration had proposed following a first warning for a dress code infraction with a referral, a verbal warning, parental contact and 45 minutes’ after-school detention.
School Board members Andy Dance and Colleen Conklin found the detention too draconian for a first warning.
“For the first initial warning I think it’s OK to write them up, tell them they’re not in compliance with the consequence of pulling them out on a repeat offense,” Dance said at the time, “but that’s just me, and we have 30 days to review it and discuss it before the next meeting. But I don’t know that I’ll approve it with the language that’s in there.”
The 30 days have had their effect. The policy the administration is presenting Tuesday evening has reworded the consequence to just a verbal warning, just as it is for middle school and elementary school students, with the referral, the parental contact and the 45 minutes of after-school detention reserved for the second violation. A third violation incurs 90 minutes’ detention after school, and a fourth violation results in Saturday detention and a one-day in-school suspension. The district is moving away from out of school suspensions.
“The schools will use a common system of discipline for dress code violations,” the code states.
getwithit says
Wearing the ID was for their safety. Now it will be more lax and anybody can come on to the grounds. That is not playing it safe.
lena Marshal says
check
markingthedays says
I mean, why would you want to be able to easily identify those who belonged on campus by such silly methods as visible ID badges and uniforms?
Mike says
School ID’s here are a joke. They didn’t stop anybody from walking onto the campus (I’ve watched many people walk onto campus unquestioned). You could have a small white piece of paper hanging from your neck and it looks no different from a distance. In fact, I have done that when I went to FPC and forgot my ID, nobody noticed a thing. It was just another thing that they could discipline students for if they didn’t have it. The only benefit I see to the ID cards is to scan it for lunch and pull up their accounts rather than the students reading off their lunch number to the cafeteria employees and taking more time to get through the lines.
Nancy N says
Just more proof that the uniform rules were never really about security in the first place. That argument was just a PR tactic that was used to sell them to the community.
It was really, all along, about providing business to the stores in Palm Coast. Remember this was first done at the height of the recession and was initially proposed by the Chamber of Commerce. I have firmly believed all along that the purpose of the proposal was to force the entire city to go out and buy their kids entire new wardrobes at a time when people weren’t buying new clothes at all due to the economy.
It was also about getting the teachers out of policing the dress code. The board didn’t believe me when I told them repeatedly that I knew from previous experience they were getting the teachers into having to police even more rules, not less policing. Now that the teachers are complaining that they are, in fact, having to do more not less policing of the dress code, the board is back tracking.
Hmm, if only they’d listened to me back during the original discussion….but I’m just a parent, what do I know?
Cindy says
I feel they are getting too complacent once again. Everyday we hear on the news “someone you would never think could do such an awful thing”. Security should be paramount in our world today.
Master D says
For the high schoolers…………Treat them as children and you get children. Treat them as adults and you get adults. IMO
w.ryan says
So school is about security and not learning? Its absurd to think that an ID supersedes learning when as a rule they remove a child for no ID from their learning environment to punish a child in order to enforce and maintain a secure setting. The fact that this ID enforcement is a selective enforcement doesn’t seem to hold any relevance in this decision. We know based on previous history who will be sent to the dean’s office and who will get a free pass. My hope is that a plan is put in place to give temporary ID’s by teachers and not interrupt the learning environment for the forgetful with the banishment to the dean. Restorative and not retributive is the way to go. I see suspensions in the future otherwise. The teachers know who their students are don’t they?
Justin Case says
What a bunch of fruit loops!
Rebecca says
I am glad that the Board has decided to keep the ID policy! As someone who works in one of our schools, it is SO much easier to recognize when we have a visitor on campus which is a safety issue. This is also a way to get our students prepared for the real world. Most places of employment now require employees to wear an ID at all times as well. Way to go School Board!!!!
w.ryan says
I agree with the safety issue but that’s not what the true issue is. The issue of lost learning time for students at he dean’s office and penalties stressed on students. ID’s are fine but the real world don’t punish – the real world gives a temporary ID for the day. Kids are irresponsible and adults forget and lose things too. (speaking as a parent of a kid that would lose his head if it wasn’t attached and suffered miserably with the this ID issue at the school)
Nancy N says
W.ryan is correct – no one is perfect and expecting teenagers to be or be punished is ridiculous. What adult hasn’t left the house and then realized they don’t have their wallet, or phone, or other important item?
I regularly (at least once a month) attend conferences and events where a badge is required to be worn. Sometimes people lose theirs during the event – it happened to me last month. I was able to go to registration and get a replacement. No big deal.
Even the freaking TSA will let you through airport security without an ID if you go through the proper procedure. If the people tasked with protecting our air traveling public from terrorists can be accommodating of a forgotten ID, you’d think a high school could be more understanding!
m&m says
Some more knee gerking and cover your asset.
PCer says
Teachers need to be able to teach, not patrol the halls looking for ID or dress code infractions. Teachers should not have to enforce it or have their students lose seat time if they forgot to put on their ID in the morning. Leave that to the principals and the deans. If they want to pull a kid into the office for not having it, then fine, but don’t make the teachers do it.