None Dare Call It Treason
Dec. 19th, 2005 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
etherialWell, no one but me anyway. My school, and schools all over the country, are commititng an act of Treason. Over the past several days, I've been growing increasinly nervous about it. Now that I've been assured by our lawyer that there's nothing I can do about it, I'm free to talk about it.
A growing trend in the educational field is that of the school ID. We had them at WHS, not that they were very useful. We had them at WPI, and they were very useful, but were pretty much all convenience, no hassle. Well, we have them at RHS too, and they're pretty much all hassle, no convenience. First off, they don't *do* anything. You can't swipe them for food in vending machines, you can't open locks with them (well, not any better than a credit card), you can't trade them out for keys. As a matter of fact, you can't forget your ID or else you get sent down to Guidance and get a big sticker put on your shirt as a "temporary" ID. All IDs must be worn and visible at all times, on a lanyard around your neck. In short, they're not ID cards. They're animal control collars.
I loathe the idea of wearing one. As a matter of fact, I dread it. The mere thought of bumping into members of the administration nearly sends me into panic attacks out of the fear that they'll make me wear one. And here's where we get to the Treason part. You see, Americans are supposed to loathe wearing animal control collars. Americans are supposed to oppose this exact sort of policy in Government Agencies around the World. But no, most of the faculty agrees that they're a good thing because they help identify the students. They help control the students. In short, they aid in violating the students' First Amendment rights - and condition them (and the teachers) to not expect to have any in the future.
We're contributing to the corruption of our Country and expressly violating the purpose of Public Education. The day will come when they tell me to wear it or get fired. I dread that day.
A growing trend in the educational field is that of the school ID. We had them at WHS, not that they were very useful. We had them at WPI, and they were very useful, but were pretty much all convenience, no hassle. Well, we have them at RHS too, and they're pretty much all hassle, no convenience. First off, they don't *do* anything. You can't swipe them for food in vending machines, you can't open locks with them (well, not any better than a credit card), you can't trade them out for keys. As a matter of fact, you can't forget your ID or else you get sent down to Guidance and get a big sticker put on your shirt as a "temporary" ID. All IDs must be worn and visible at all times, on a lanyard around your neck. In short, they're not ID cards. They're animal control collars.
I loathe the idea of wearing one. As a matter of fact, I dread it. The mere thought of bumping into members of the administration nearly sends me into panic attacks out of the fear that they'll make me wear one. And here's where we get to the Treason part. You see, Americans are supposed to loathe wearing animal control collars. Americans are supposed to oppose this exact sort of policy in Government Agencies around the World. But no, most of the faculty agrees that they're a good thing because they help identify the students. They help control the students. In short, they aid in violating the students' First Amendment rights - and condition them (and the teachers) to not expect to have any in the future.
We're contributing to the corruption of our Country and expressly violating the purpose of Public Education. The day will come when they tell me to wear it or get fired. I dread that day.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-20 01:24 am (UTC)Because the carpeting dampens the Evil Sense of Forebodingtm from the sound of my boots coming down the hall, it heartens me to learn that some people here have begun to feel a similar sort of dread from the jingling noise that all the crap on my badge-holder makes.