As of this year, The Woodlands High School is requiring all staff and students to wear their school ID’s on a lanyard around their neck or clipped on their shirt. As a student at TWHS, I appreciate the effort that our administration is putting forth in order to continue to keep us safe, but I still have some questions as to how effective this will be.

While I’m grateful that there are rules being put into place in order to protect us from the awful things happening in our country today, all of the attention being drawn to the fear of a school shooting almost scares me more than before when we did not bring awareness to this uprising issue. Of course, bringing attention and awareness to this topic is important, but it is scary to think how normalized and realistic this situation is nowadays. In order to ease the mixed emotions of students, I think that along with these lanyards, the school could also take into account ways to talk to the student body. They could prepare us for the worse and possibly talk to students about mental health just for extra protection.

Another thing that worries me is, yes, with the ID’s shown on your person, you will be able to confirm whether someone is a student or not, but there are many cases today where the shooter can be a student that attends the very school that they attack. Although this is morbid, it needs to be addressed. Having verified proof that you are a student of TWHS would not solve this issue because they would be allowed in the building without question. I’m not stating that each and every student should be questioned or considered untrustworthy, but I think there could be something higher tech added. For example, possible metal detectors for extra security. Although, this would be expensive, and possibly complicated for students to enter the building, I think it would be a more effective safety precaution.

Overall, I am 100% willing to wear my lanyard, but I wish that there was more explanation behind why we are wearing these and what is it specifically preventing. Altogether, I appreciate the safety precautions being taken because I think that it makes the students at TWHS feel recognized, but in order to make students feel completely comfortable, administration should consider giving a deeper explanation behind this newly enforced rule.