Warning to OPRF students: if you’re not wearing your school identification card, you’re not entering the building – and the more infractions you compile, the greater the consequences.
That’s the new procedure concerning mandatory IDs to be worn beginning this fall at Oak Park and River Forest High School, 201 N. Scoville. Students won’t be allowed in classrooms or other parts of the building either if their ID isn’t worn and clearly visible.
Students without their identification will face consequences ranging from a warning to an in-school suspension (ISS), depending on how many infractions he or she has. The new procedures also warrant a change to the school’s Code of Conduct. Violating the procedures is now a Class I infraction. Any changes to the school’s Code of Conduct are made before the start of each school year and suggested by a school committee that includes teachers and administrators. The school has discussed mandatory wearing of IDs for about a year now. The new procedures take effect the first day of school Aug. 24.
The District 200 Board of Education approved the revised Code of Conduct June 24. Administrative officials maintain that mandatory IDs will help identify OPRF students and keep the building safe. The IDs are to be worn on neck lanyards that are detachable by Velcro. If outside the building and approached by a police officer, the students are required to present them if asked.
Janel Bishop, OPRF’s assistant principal for student health and safety, said police do patrol around the school and other parts of the village and will ask a student if they’re supposed to be outside the building if spotted. The identification card will have a student’s lunch period on it to indicate it’s OK for them to be off-campus during that time. Bishop and school officials said the expectation is for students to wear their IDs during the school day, both on and off-campus.
It will take 21 violations before an in-school suspension is issued. Violations below that amount will result in various hours of detention. Anything over 22 will result in a referral to a dean and consequences that could include a restricted lunch period and/or parent conference.
“I think that they really took some time and worked hard at providing opportunities for students to get it right,” said Principal Nathaniel Rouse. “So when people think about consequences, how they’re punitive and what we’re doing with those, again, it’s going to take a student 21 times before they get an in-school suspension for an ID infraction. And that is a student who simply is being defiant in not wearing their ID.”
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com