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 02:43 pm (UTC)It seems to me that highschool "government" classes are simply there to mock the students - they have to learn how their government works, what their rights are, and they're supposed to care... but they're damned if they do care, because there's nothing they can do until they turn 18. My personal pet peeve was that I had no say in the district school budget (voted on every year by the public) until after I was done with public-funded school. Literally, the only thing that changed was that I got a year older, which pushed me out of highschool and into college - "Oh, now that you're in college, and no longer even live in the area during the school year, now you can vote on how money is spent for the schools."
I'd say it's also a good sign of how under-funded the schools really are that they need to implement a mandatory ID system so they can know whether or not you're a student. As if a teenager who didn't belong there would try to sneak in.
rereading your entry at Josh's prodding.
Date: 2006-01-08 05:34 am (UTC)They do. With guns, usually, sometimes knives.
While the ID badges make it easier to identify who belongs and who does not, they also make it easier to identify who you're there to assault.