Beginning this year, district administrators have decided that all Flower Mound High School students would have to wear IDs while on school property. The ID policy is new to Flower Mound High School, but not to the district. High school students have had to wear IDs in years past, as well as various middle schools.

With so many moving parts during the school day, it can be challenging to keep track of who belongs at the school and who doesn’t.

“We have 2700 kids who come here,” said Assistant Principal Jeff Lahey. “We have kids on senior in and senior out and kids who go to the career center and come back. We need a very quick check to make sure that the people who are supposed to are here and the ones who are not supposed to aren’t here.  And that ID gives us a very quick visual that we can make across.”

Administrators aren’t out to punish students for not wearing IDs. Instead, they want to focus on making ID interactions positive conversations.

“We are saying ‘Hey, if you come to school and don’t have your ID, come to the library, get yourself another one’,” Lahey said. “It does cost the $5 but we’re not going to address that as far as disciplinary [action]. We are going to look at that as you took advantage of an opportunity to avoid that consequence.”

If students continue to not wear their IDs, warnings will be issued, and eventually parents will be notified. The goal isn’t to get the student in trouble, just to reinforce the message that IDs are used for safety precautions.

“We want to give a couple [of] warnings, maybe make a phone call home: ‘Hey, this is the second time that we’ve visited with your child about [wearing their ID]. Please make sure to instill [wearing it because] it helps us keep them safe at school’,” Lahey said.

Students aren’t the only ones who have to wear IDs; teachers are required to wear their IDs on a lanyard or clipped onto a belt loop. The goal is not only to make sure the right students are at school, but also to that Flower Mound teachers are the only ones in the school.

““One of the things you’ll see I’m doing is that I’m wearing mine on the lanyard. I’m going to model the behavior I’d like to see from students. We are really going to be encouraging wearing the badge. You’ve probably seen Ms. Lail is wearing hers, Ms. Casal [too],” Lahey said.