It’s 7:55 a.m., and students from 6th graders to seniors swarm through the Kenwood entrance. Whether they are shuffling through the doors in an exhausted stupor or shouting cheery hellos to friends, they all have one common goal: to get past the security guard and speed walk to their classes. Most scan their badge as required, but a few, too impatient to wait in the line or write their names down, inevitably slip by. 

Swiping IDs is simply security theater, and the process needs to be replaced by more effective measures such as violence awareness and better counseling. 

The majority of school violence comes from internal violence between students, something ID scans can’t prevent. While it is true that violence from outside sources can sometimes be a problem, intruders can be identified and denied entrance by our adept security guards regardless of an ID system.

Studies from the University of Chicago and the American Counseling Association show that in-school violence can effectively be fought by better therapy measures and nonviolence programs  in schools, while measures like IDs aren’t effective in this area. 

If we want to decrease violence in school, we should ditch the inconvenience and security theater of IDs and employ other solutions, like better counseling and violence awareness. With the most recent health and wellness survey showing that feelings of alienation towards others and feelings of anger and depression are near an all-time high, counselors need to step in and support the people who might cause violence from the inside.