This school year, Costa has been severely strict on students leaving early, imposing firmer rules regarding off-campus privileges. For the past 2 years, students who leave after their 3rd or 4th period have been required to show the sticker on their ID before leaving. While this rule has technically always existed, enforcement in previous years has been relaxed. This year, it has become much stricter with new administration rules, which has caused headaches for many.
Now, students who forget their ID, that has the sticker on the back, are being stopped at security and sent to the office, even though the student can quickly pull up their Aeries portal to show their schedule. What could be a quick routine process when a student forgets their ID, has now become a hassle that is trying to prevent you from leaving unless you are able to talk to a VP to clear you.
“Last week, I forgot to bring my ID to school because I didn’t drive, and I offered to show them my Aeries but they did not let me.” According to senior Josh Farbman. “They made this a bigger issue than it needed to be. It took me 20 mins to get cleared by the VP and they shouldn’t waste time on this.”
This new level of enforcement may be well intentioned, aiming to have better campus safety and ensure students are not skipping class. However, the strict change has frustrated many students, especially since it’s nearly impossible to get a note from the attendance office because they’re always too busy. For most students, forgetting the ID isn’t intentional, and can lead students to spend excess time on campus when they might have appointments or practice after school they would be late for.
Additionally, this new policy seems contradictory. During the first month of school, students simply showed their class schedules to be allowed to leave, which took the same amount of time as checking for the sticker on the ID and caused no issues. While some students might try to send screenshots of their schedules to friends so they can skip class, the portal clearly displays the student’s photo and name at the top, making it easy to prevent that problem.
Rules created to keep students and the campus safe are essential, but when they begin to interfere with the students and cause more issues, the costs outweigh the benefits. Instead of focusing on the important issues at hand, the students have to wait in the front office until a VP is able to meet, only for them to give you a slip to leave. It’s a waste of both the vice principal’s time and the students’ time. Costa needs to update their policy and allow students to be able to show their Aeries in the situation if they forget their ID card.
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