BADGES FOR STUDENTS, LIKE IT OR NOT PHOTO IDS REQUIRED ON A.V. HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUSES, STARTING IN FALL.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Despite opposition from student leaders, Antelope Valley Union High School District trustees approved a new rule requiring students and staffers to wear photo identification badges starting next school year.

Photo ID badges will make it easier for staffers on the 24,000-student district's 12 campuses - some of which have more than 3,000 students each - to readily identify outsiders who do not belong there, district administrators said.

``It's a huge safety issue. There are so many people who come onto campuses, adults and students,'' board President Donita Winn said. ``The Sheriff's Department has urged us to do the badge thing for a couple of years.''

The board voted unanimously at Wednesday's meeting to approve the new policy. However, student board member Emily Keyes cast a dissenting vote.

Keyes told the board that she had taken the issue back to members of the Interschool Communication Council, which consists of five student representatives from each campus, and the majority were opposed.

``Mainly we feel it would cause more of a hazard with choking and pulling of the lanyard. We also don't think it will be enforced, so it's just another rule that's not going to be enforced,'' said Keyes, who added that she personally favors the badges as a way to keep unauthorized people off campuses.

Reasons included the possibility of choking, lack of enforcement, and potential loopholes such as when a student transfers to a new school and can end up with two badges.

Teachers union President Gene Smith cited enforcement as an area of concern for teachers.

``I think it's got a few wrinkles that need to be worked out,'' Smith said. ``In other words, a student shows up and they don't have an ID badge and are issued a temporary one. If sometime during the day they lose it, should the teachers write them up? Enforcement issues will be where the rubber meets the road.''

``I think over time students will get used to it, and how effective it will be in making for safer campuses I'm not sure,'' Smith added.

Trustee Al Beattie recalled how Palmdale High School students complained when the district in 1998 installed a fence in front of the campus as a security measure.

``The kids were upset about the fence. They thought they were being confined unnecessarily. Today students don't even think about the fence. I don't anticipate students will object to wearing ID badges. They will accept it as normal everyday operations,'' Beattie said.

``We have campuses with over 3,000 students on each one. We have growing faculty. It's no longer a small town. When you get on facilities like that, you need to know who is supposed to be there and who is not supposed to be there,'' Beattie said. ``That's the critical issue.''

Photo ID badges were recommended by a committee made up of parents, teachers, administrators and employees.

Students already are issued ID cards annually. Next year they would get a lanyard and a badge that would be specific to each school, having, for instance, the school's colors.

The policy requires the badge to be worn above the waist and be clearly visible at all times. Students can wear it on the lanyard or clip it to a collar or lapel.

If a student forgets his badge, a temporary one would be issued for that day. Students would be charged for a lost badge, possibly the same $5 charge as for the current identification cards.

High school officials had contemplated a photo ID policy in 1998, but trustees back then thought such a policy was unenforceable and preferred

looking at requiring school uniforms instead. Uniforms were never adopted districtwide.

Before Wednesday's meeting, Lancaster High School officials on their own had decided to require ID badges at their campus.

Lancaster got the idea after a vice principal read about a school in Garden Grove that has such a program. Then a trustee mentioned that schools in Long Beach do it.

In the Long Beach Unified School District, the policy of requiring students to wear ID badges started at one school two years ago and now is in effect at all six high schools.

Winn expected students would be against the requirement. When Winn visited a Long Beach school, students said they didn't like it in the beginning but were OK with it now.

``The kids get ID cards anyway at the beginning of the year. Now they will get it in a plastic case with a clippy pin on it,'' Winn said.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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