Students: Color-Coded IDs Causing Division ( Virginia)

[SoCalDem]

File this one in the DUH! file..:eyes:



Students: Color-Coded IDs Causing Division
Penalties Exist For Not Wearing IDs

POSTED: 6:53 am EDT October 18, 2006
UPDATED: 8:02 pm EDT October 18, 2006
http://www.nbc4.com/education/10101812/detail.html?rss=dc&psp=news

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Students at Montgomery Blair High School are upset about a new policy requiring them to wear color-coded identification badges.

The new badges issued two weeks ago are color-coded by the students' grades, and the lanyards worn around their necks designate 11 categories of learning "academies" represented at the 3,000-student campus in Silver Spring, Md.

Color-Coded Student IDs -- Good Or Bad?

Seniors wear black badges, students in magnet programs wear white and those who have limited English proficiency wear yellow.

Principal Phillip Gainous said they thought they were doing a good thing. They hoped to build a sense of identity and security for students at a school where students are broken into smaller learning communities.

snip...

[Richard Steele]

1. Is our school Administrators learning?

You said it- SERIOUS "duh!" file material.

[jhrobbins]

8. Gee Dick, maybe they'll let us wear a rainbow lanyard this time...

instead of that old pink triangle - not to denigrate the triangle, I like the triangle, it's a terrific triangle. I just like the rainbow cuz it just goes with everything.;)

[sakabatou]

2. It's also a great way for bullies to find victims

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. The Nazis knew this 70 years ago

Hasn't that school learned anything in that span of time?

[Mist]

3. Coming next week: star of David armbands. nt

[Burma Jones]

13. Not at Blair......

It serves a heavily Jewish community. On Saturdays, certain stores are closed and you can see folks dressed in black walking to Temple...so, no.

[Mist]

29. Yes, I was exaggerating, but still, I don't think the labels are a

good idea. I can't see what purpose they'd serve.

On edit: reading down the thread, I see I'm not the only one who was reminded of the infamous yellow stars.

[Burma Jones]

31. I don't think they're such a good idea either

But I found it ironic that a school serving a heavily Jewish population would adopt separate badges for different types of people.

[genie_weenie]

25. I call Godwin's Law.

Not that this color-coded crap is a good idea...

[Kiouni]

5. on paper its smart

in real life its a catastrophe. But ID badges aren't a bad idea i have to wear one at work, it would get them ready for life.

[Horse with no Name]

20. I wear them too

But how would you feel if your boss decided to color code them--say under the categories:
Great Employee
Adequate Employee
Bad Employee
Excessive Absenteeism
We're firing next week but don't tell anyone.
Come on now--ID badges aren't a bad thing...however, creating any type of class system with them is.

[Bucky]

6. "limited English proficiency wear yellow". More than creepy. Evil

Small learning communities are successful. But their success is a result of personalizing and humanizing the education process. The different color of lanyard by academy also is a cute idea, like a club badge or a fraternity tie. But at some point all that tagging starts to be an unnatural divide between students. When you start singling out the LEP students with yellow badges--and I pray they aren't two yellow triagular badges sewn on top of each other--you officially cross into creepy territory. The point of LEP classes is to bring students up to speed with their English so that they can become fully a part of the community. Doing something that stigmatizes them destroys everything a school should be working for.

[Nikki Stone 1]

28. Well said, and right on the money.

As if LEP kids don't have enough problems.

[Swamp Rat]

7. "Scarlet Letters?"

This is so wrong... :eyes:

[Ian David]

9. Why not color-coded jumpsuits like in Conquest Of Planet Of The Apes?

[PsychoDad]

10. Segregation is never a good idea....

Let's segregate the student population with color coded ID's

Brilliant!


Didn't work out very well, did it?


Peace

[lynne]

11. This is in MARYLAND - not Virginia. eom

[Solo_in_MD]

22. The MD schools never cease to amaze me with their stupidity

Part of the problem is their fundamental lack of accountability to the school board or elected officials. Its the old cliche about how power corrupts. There were days with them that lead me to think thats where the Whitehouse got some of their *better* ideas.

[SoCalDem]

35. Oops.. shame on me.. I must have had a brain fade

:sorry:

[marions ghost]

12. truly grotesque

why are the parents not up in arms? I guess they like this?

Visible marking according to grades ...now I've heard everything. Didn't those educators ever read The Scarlet Letter? Or as someone else pointed out, how about the labelling of Jews in Nazi Germany?

:thumbsdown: :puke: :thumbsdown: :puke: :thumbsdown: :puke:

I would not let my child go to this school.

[ContraBass Black]

14. I thought it made sense and was reasonable, until I got to the words

"...those who have limited English proficiency wear yellow."

Whoa. Back up, there.

[NJ Democrats]

15. Excatly

You can't have tjhat one. I dpn'y mind Ids, but come on.

[aikoaiko]

16. I say give it a try -- if the admin thinks something good will come of it

...let them show the results empirically.

Like others I am doubtful that identifying kids with deficiencies (like ESL) is probably not a good idea, but perhaps something can be achieved.

I would assume the main reason they are doing this is because the campus is so large that the teachers can't keep track of the students visually. Too many students, not enough teachers.

[EFerrari]

18. That's not a reason to brand the children. n/t

[aikoaiko]

23. Branding, scarlet letter, jude star is all hyperbolic.

Many schools who have uniforms already use variation of the uniform to visually track categories of kids without psychological trauma.

[EFerrari]

24. It's not hyperbolic in the least to say that being forced to

wear a colored coded i.d. tag is branding.

And the children aren't there for the convenience of their spotters. Remember?

I wonder how many white kids at that school are wearing a yellow tag?

[aikoaiko]

26. branding is burning a symbol into flesh.

If the tags denoting students with weak English language skills were not a part of their coding scheme would you still have a problem with this. I wouldn't.

I am agnostic about the benefits and harm.

[EFerrari]

32. "Branding" as it is now used in the vernacular means labeling,

or more closely, packaging and presenting.

The tags do purport to identify students with deficits in English language skills. My question was, are there any white kids walking around with yellow tags?

[aikoaiko]

36. I'm not sure it matters if there were any white kids kids w/ yellow tags..

...if the designation is skill based and some benefit to the children occurs because of wearing the yellow tags. Again, the benefits from wearing colored tags is an open question.

[EFerrari]

37. It does matter if the criteria for being proficient is being white.

And it also matters for white kids with learning deficits because they get overlooked.

The harm goes both ways.

[EFerrari]

17. Contact information for Phillip Gainous, Principal

Principal — Phillip Gainous — [e-mail] — [phone]

School Webpage: http://www.mbhs.edu/

[hedgehog]

19. Maybe the problem starts with the 3000 student campus?

I think that's grotesque. Nothing says I take a personal interest in you like a picture ID tag so I know who you are! Ever since Columbine, the schools around here have been adding all sorts of security measures such as placing tags on all employees and stationing people at the door to sign people in. (Procedure for three years to pick up daughter for weekly appointment: Sign in at door; sign in at office, sign out at office, sign out at door. In three years, no one ever asked me for an ID!) Going by the way these people think, the killings at the Amish school house would have been prevented if the killer had been forced to sign in first! (Purpose for visit: mass murder. Sorry sir, you can't come in for that)

The best security the high school ever had was the simple fact that the custodians knew all the faces and knew who belonged and who didn't. I could always locate my kids when picking them up from after school activities. The custodians knew everyone in the building and where they were!

[obreaslan]

21. Some Sneetches have a star and some do not...

I guess the Admins at this school missed the point of this Dr. Seuss story...

[truebrit71]

27. Are the ones in yellow star-shaped by chance?

..fucking stupid idea...

[Javaman]

34. You plucked the thought right out of my head...nt

[HuffleClaw]

30. meep

wow, that is just downright creepy.

[WinkyDink]

33. TERRIBLE idea!! I can see coded by grade, but ANYthing else is

exclusionary, segregating, and possibly humiliating.

There is NO reason to "visually keep track of" students with English-language proficiency problems (frankly, as a former h.s. English teacher, I'd say it's easier to label those without, but I digress).
What, are the administrators and teachers Rain-man, where they can glance at a crowd and say, "435 freshmen in the magnet program, yeah, 435 freshmen in the magnet program, yeah"?