Why do schools make kids wear IDs?

I have no idea.

Originally published in the Moultrie News.

My sixth-grade son with ADHD often forgets his school ID badge, resulting in punishment. I want him to learn rules, but I don’t understand the need to wear an ID. How does it benefit schools?

First, I encourage you to coach your child to comply. It’s crucial for kids to learn how to cooperate within a community.

That said, this isn’t a case where I can easily justify the rule’s importance. I have no idea why we need student IDs.

We’re not talking about employee IDs. And we don’t mean student access cards, which function as “keys” to restricted areas like the library or as payment methods for lunch — those cards have a clear purpose and real-life consequences: forget yours, and you’re sharing a friend’s baloney sandwich.

We’re talking about badges for student identification only. They usually feature photos, names, and grade levels. They’re often worn with lanyards. They’re most common in high schools, but can be found in any school, including pre-K.

When I questioned some administrators why it’s a punishable offense not to wear an ID, the unanimous answer was “safety and security.” Pressed further (“How does it make students safer?”), the answers got murky. I found somewhat clearer explanations online — all from companies selling ID badges to schools.

Vendors profiting from mass-produced IDs argue they make it easy to verify a student’s identity and exclude “fake” students. Some suggest IDs can help identify an injured or deceased student in a disaster.

In 20 years of managing IDs, I've not yet seen them enhance student safety. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t. I can theorize scenarios where IDs help teachers recognize a student imposter. However, making a fake ID is easy, and it’s questionable whether the imposter’s villainous motives wouldn’t give him away first. Besides, is it crazy to think that a school too big to detect a fake student might be too big, period?

In my experience, IDs have caused more safety concerns than they’ve solved. I’ve seen students choke each other with their lanyards. Students also hit each other with them, which can quickly escalate into a fight.

IDs often provoke unnecessary conflict with teachers. Confronting a kid shoving a classmate differs from punishing someone for not wearing an ID. Both can lead to the guilty kid cursing you out, which ruins your day and makes you question your career choice. Only one seems worth the conflict.

You might suggest not penalizing kids who lack IDs, but that would put mandatory IDs in the odious category of “rules only good kids have to follow.” Such rules teach misbehaving kids that they can get away with anything and teach obedient kids that only chumps follow rules.

ID companies note that sometimes teachers need to identify an unknown child. That happened to me once this year. I saw a student shove a girl into a pit. I asked his name. He refused to tell me. I asked to look at his ID. He turned and walked away. That kind of thing happens a lot, especially in middle school.

IDs create problems that distract teachers from teaching. Administering their issuance, replacement, and management is time-consuming. It takes even more time to manage the trouble they create — the swatting, choking, gnawing (yes, all the time), stealing, switching, defacing, losing, and forgetting never end. Who handles all these transgressions? Dopes like me who thought they were going to college to teach kids reading and writing.

But they also cause trouble for kids like your son, who have enough to handle learning and behaving. It often feels like IDs’ predominant purpose is to punish.

Parents wanting the purported security of IDs without the nonsense should push for school uniforms. Every child is easily identifiable, and no kid forgets to come to school without a shirt. Uniforms also provide academic and social benefits that IDs lack.

I’m not branding IDs a waste; just searching for reasons to justify the tension they create. So far, I’ve drawn blanks. If anyone knows of cases where IDs averted disaster, please let me know.

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Jody Stallings has been an award-winning teacher in Charleston since 1992 and is director of the Charleston Teacher Alliance. To submit a question, order his books, or follow him on social media, please visit JodyStallings.com.