Freshmen, sophomores and juniors received student identification cards Oct. 9 with little forewarning or explanation. Many were confused as to why they received the student IDs.
“When we got them, our teacher told us, ‘Here are your student IDs; I don’t know what they’re for,’” freshman Jaela Harris said.
Reactions among students varied.
“I don’t have any other type of identification for taking the SAT, so it’s helpful,” sophomore Delaney Galvin said.
Junior Austin Korynta plans on using his ID for a different purpose.
“I like it because it gives me a discount at Bojangles’,” Korynta said.
Assistant principal Valencia Toomer explained the school’s purpose of issuing student IDs.
“With student IDs, there are a lot of perks in restaurants, movie theaters, different things like that where students have chances to have discounted services,” Toomer said. “Another thing is that we will offer things for games that say, ‘With your student ID, you can get two dollars off.’ That’s kind of the direction we’re going in.”
Others wondered why seniors did not receive the cards along with the underclassmen. Toomer was told that the pictures on the senior ID cards would be those taken during the senior photo sessions. The IDs were delayed for seniors because their makeup picture sessions did not take place until Oct. 5.
Toomer discussed the process in which the student IDs came about. The cards were produced by Lifetouch, the company the school hires to take student portraits for the yearbook.
“It was something that the company offered—a company freebie,” Toomer said. “Because we’re contracted with them, they share some of the perks that they have. In addition to all of the other things they do as far as pictures, ID cards are another option, so once we realized that was a perk at really no cost to us, we were able to say, ‘How can we really use these as an advantage for later?’ We’ll meet with Central Services and try to talk about ways to really be able to utilize the ID cards.”
The administration hopes to add more features to the ID cards in the coming years.
“This year is sort of a trial to get things out there, and then the end goal is where we want everything attached to the student ID, meaning your cafeteria account, your tech fees,” Toomer said. “We want it to be where if you swipe this card or use its bar code or something, everything is attached to it. You know how you can use a card to enter a building? We would like for it to be that progressive.”
As of yet, the school hasn’t offered any perks regarding the ID cards. However, although the IDs are only in their early stages, Toomer says to be on the lookout for their available perks and uses in the future.
“Right now this is just a starting stage,” Toomer said. “It’s very minimal. Use it for whatever perks outside of school that you can use it for, we’ll offer some incentives while you’re in school with using your student IDs, but just know that there’s a future plan for where we’re going with them.”
– By Becca Heilman