Over the speaker on the morning of October 3rd, Dr. Kenner announces that this year’s IDs were waiting in the main office. After hearing this announcement, Cecilia Thyen ‘20 comments, “I forgot that IDs were even a thing.” A month into the year, there was no mention of the ID rule instituted last year that was found controversial among students.

     Last year, due to many issues in school safety, including school shootings, around the country, Whitney Young administration instituted a rule that all students and faculty must wear their IDs in the building at all times. According to the student handbook, this has been a rule for many years; it was just never enforced. Many students were questioning if this year the rule was going to be enforced again–should they even be enforced again? Gracie Holmes ‘19 says, “If we got through the first month of school without the IDs, shouldn’t that mean we could get through the rest of the year without them? I think they are kind of unnecessary.” Meanwhile, Ava Hunter ‘19 says, “I understand why the ID thing is such a big deal. The staff just wants us to be safe and they only have our best interest in mind. It doesn’t hurt people to just wear them.” Many students have differing views on this topic, as do the teachers. Whitney Young is also late to join the trend. Most CPS schools, for example Jones and Payton, have been following this rule for many years. We will see how this topic unfolds throughout the year at Whitney Young.