ID Badges in the News - School Safety & Security Policy
Click to Download Our Word.doc Printable for Links and Comments to the Cordelle Crisp County High School’s Safe School & Security Environment Policy - Complete School Policy Included - See another story related to school safety in San Jose
1. January 12, 2008 Cordelle Dispatch - By Carmen Lindsey ID Badges Create Safe Environment in Schools www.cordeledispatch.com/local/local_story_012190910.html
Very impressed with the C.C.H.S.’s Safe School & Security Environment Policy for students, faculty, and staff.
Check out our 2 School ID badge packages for School Principals, Assistants, School Board Admin’s, and Student School Bodies.
These complete packages include price breakdowns for 5,000 blank lanyards, 5,000 badge holders or plastic cards and/or 5,000 blank inserts. We’ve also added optional features for our XID Card Printer which comes with manual training, slot punch and custom printing costs all at 20% School Discount Pricing.
Take a look at our 2 packages and call Steve at 800-990-2492
ext 105 or email steve@namifiers.com who will be able to customize your school needs and budget.
PACKAGE 1: VINYL BADGE HOLDER PACKAGE
- 5,000 Breakaway Blank Lanyards w/ Attachments (6 colors to choose from)
- 5,000 Vinyl Badge Holders w/clip
- 5,000 Inserts
Individually Priced at $3,003 - Your school 20% discount at $2,402.40
NOTE: 5,000 is just a number to start at if you need an accurate quote for less or more, we will adjust the packaged price to still honor the limited time offer of 20%.
PACKAGE 2: XID CARD PRINTER (Training on the XID Printer included.)
- XID Machine
- 5,000 Blank Cards
- 5,000 Breakaway Blank Lanyards w/ Attachments (6 colors to choose from)
- Cornermate Slot Punch $198
- 5 Rolls - EDISecure XID CMYK Ribbon
Individually Priced at $4,110.72 - Your 20% school discount at $3,288.58 plus, XID 360i - $4,495
Optional Features May Include: (Be sure to add the School Discount 20%)
- 5,000 Custom Printed Lanyards - regularly priced at $2,992 (lanyards & print)
- 5,000 Custom Printed Badge Holders - regularly priced at $2,025
- 5,000 Custom Printed Badge Inserts - regularly priced at $1,470
Other Extras May Include: Different Lanyards styles, XID machine models, name nags with magnet backings (no more holes), badge card printing…
If you have a vender bidding format, please let us know how to proceed to get you the exact quote for your school needs.
Again, please refer to the article to help you decide what is the best school
safety policy fits your needs. Compare ID badges to other more expensive policies such as Security Guards, Metal Detectors and Video Equipment and hands down School ID Badges out weighs any other program policy. By charging a small $2.00 fee to every student for their new lanyard and id badge. NOTE: lost ID Badges may also incure a small fee for those that forget theirs at home or lose them. Finally, every chamber of commerce will refer you to a list of businesses that would be more than happy to sponser your efforts for School Safety and Security Policy. Refer to Newspaper Article in Microsoft Word Doc/Download- One Page Printout.
2. Article 2: January 7, 2008 - South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Coach IDs Good Idea
see article: www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editajjcoachessbjan07,0,1336485.storyBoth are great articles. Read them - contact Namifiers about ordering your next ID Badges at the lowest guaranteed rate along with getting them in a timely manner. 24 hour shipping - same day service. “Expect to Perfect”
Posted in announcements
January 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Very interesting article: Published January 12, 2008 07:09 pm - By CARMEN LINDSEY
ID badges create safe environment
CORDELE — In an effort to maintain a safe and secure environment conductive to learning, Crisp County High School has implemented an identification policy.
This policy states all persons must wear ID badges at all times while on campus. All teachers and students must wear their ID badges in a highly visible location. All students must wear a lanyard with ID badges around their necks.
“Our school is unique because we’re close to I-75,” said CCHS Principal Toriano Gilbert. “Anyone can walk into the school. These badges give everyone, even the students, a chance to know who is supposed to be on campus.”
Gilbert said he can forsee no problems with the policy. Things are going well. An average of ten people a day forget to wear badges, but that is somewhat to be expected after only a week in operation.
“This small number is really amazing to me,” Gilbert said. The school has approximately 11,033 students.
“Our students are to be commended,” he said. “They’re taking ownership for the safety of the school.”
Darius Gunn, a junior at CCHS, said he has no problem remembering to wear his badge. “I’ve barely taken it off. It’s like jewelry. I keep it on.”
CCHS is the only school in the Crisp County School System which has initiated this policy. “Maybe other schools will come on board, but that’s a decision of each school’s administration,” said Gilbert.
Assistant Principals Fredrick Richard and Hubert Adams played a big part in establishing the policy. Before approaching Gilbert with their idea, they located other schools in the area that had implented the use of ID badges, identified their successes and any cautions they discovered and researched the logistics of student identification.
“They did a lot of the leg work, talked to other administrations in the area, and approached with number of students in our school,” Gilbert said.
Once they approached Gilbert, and he approved the idea, they voiced their desires to the Crisp County Board of Education. The Board of Education voted to accept CCHS Principal Gilbert’s recommendation on Dec. 11, 2007.
ID badges create safe environment
“The first thing is the safety of the students,” said Adams. With a growing focus on school violence, many schools are turning to this measure to ensure the safety of their students and staff. Some feel a simple photo ID is a small concession to keeping children safe and secure.
“If I can see a badge dangling from one of the students, I know they’re mine,” said Richard. “It helps us out a lot.”
Other than the most obvious benefit, ID badges are inexpensive, decrease disciplinary problems within the school through easy and accurate identification of students, make it possible to address other students and teachers personally, and increase efficiency by integrating programs for library materials, food service, and door access.
ID badges with magnetic strips or bar codes can be used to monitor attendance, purchase school lunches, check out library books, or grant access to restricted areas of school buildings.
Students who refuse or neglect to wear their ID badges will be given an immediate consequence. In case of loss or damage, students are required to pay for a temporary badge for $2, which is good for only one day, and/or they can purchase a replacement badge for $5 and a new lanyard for $1.
Signs can be seen all over the school demonstrating the proper way to wear ID badges.
The following guidelines have been established to make sure students, faculty and staff are in compliance with the high school’s initiative:
1. Every student and employee is required to obtain an official Crisp County High School ID badge.
2. IDs must be visible at all times.
3. IDs must be worn by the student it identifies only.
4. Students cannot borrow and/or exchange their ID badge with anyone.
5. ID badges may not be obstructed/defaced with any items (i.e. no stickers, tape, writing, etc.)
6. Students who forget their badges at home must purchase a temporary badge in the guidance office. Temporary ID badges will be sold for $2, and they must be worn on the left side of the student’s chest.
7. Students will be allowed to purchase up to 3 temporary IDs. After the third temporary ID, the student will be required to purchase a new $5 ID badge or be subject to an increased level of disciplinary action.
8. Students who are repeatedly in violation of the school ID badge policy will be issued disciplinary actions, inclusive of out-of-school suspension.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Very interesting article: South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board - January 7, 2008
Coach IDs good idea, but parents have a role in youth safety, too
ISSUE: South Florida cities require photo ID badges for volunteer coaches.It used to be a parent who wanted to spend more time with his child could just sign up for a local league and coach a bunch of kids — free of suspicion.
But those days are gone. Now, volunteer coaches in some cities throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties are required to wear photo ID badges to prove they’re not child molesters or abusers. They have to submit to fingerprinting and background checks to assure they’re not criminals.
Unfortunately, such safeguards are necessary due to the epidemic of child abuse and pedophilia in our society.
Cities are wise to take pro-active measures, making sure children are safe, no matter how costly or inconvenient. And they are right to worry about potential lawsuits should a child be molested by a city volunteer. It’s just the world we live in.
South Florida municipalities now requiring ID badges include Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Lauderdale Lakes, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach and Tamarac. In Hollywood, which started the practice two years ago, park employees also patrol the fields to make sure people working with children wear the badges. Wellington requires only background checks.
State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, has proposed a bill requiring all youths sports volunteers to be fingerprinted. And the National Recreation and Park Association runs Social Security numbers through criminal background databases.
All are good safeguards, and should be implemented statewide. But parents and city officials must be careful not to be lulled into a false sense of security. Even the best protective measures won’t be able to weed out every child molester.
Parents must do their part, keeping a close eye on people who work in youth programs. It’s ultimately their responsibility to keep their children safe.
BOTTOM LINE: Safety measures are good, but keep a watchful eye.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
One more interesting article. Reference: sun-sentinel.com
(USPublicRecords.com)
More Cities Requiring Background Checks, ID Badges for Youth Sports Coaches
Youth sports volunteers are subject to safety measure
She’s more than happy to be a team mom for her sons, so Angela Walker is willing to participate in the latest attempt by cities to keep the fields safe.
She wears an ID badge, showing that she has cleared a criminal background check. So does every coach and anyone else who comes into contact with the children.
“It gives you a sense of security to know they’re in good hands,” said Walker, whose sons play football, basketball and baseball. “You can’t just allow anybody and everybody around your child.”
Riviera Beach joins West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and other cities that started ID badge programs this year. Hollywood began requiring ID badges for its more than 600 volunteer coaches more than two years ago.
The badges are one more safety measure in youth sports. Particularly in large cities, the children and the coaches don’t know each other, and an adult with a poor track record could be in a position he or she shouldn’t be.
Riviera Beach Parks and Recreation Director John Williams said most of the volunteers are like Walker, and cooperate.
“They understand why we’re doing it,” he said. “After all, most of them are parents, too.”
The cities fear lawsuits if they don’t require the background checks, because they could be held responsible should a volunteer molest a child, hit one or give one a beer. The logic: Youth coaches and other volunteers are “unpaid staff” approved by the city.
But then another problem surfaced: How do you know that the guy on the field coaching is a cleared coach, rather than just some dad (with a criminal record) who appears one day “just to help pitch in.”
So Hollywood parks staff walks the fields daily, making sure coaches and other volunteers who are near children, such as team moms, have their badges. They carry a master list of approved people and politely ask those who haven’t been cleared to take a seat in the stands.
That includes, say, a dad who’s just trying to provide an extra pair of hands on the field.
“Most of them understand,” says David Vazquez, the city’s sports coordinator. “But honestly, sometimes that conversation goes better than others.”
Meanwhile, Wellington runs background checks but doesn’t use badges, which can create a false sense of security, Leisure Services Director Jim Barnes says.
Instead, the focus should be on preventing future offenses, he says. That means sports leagues must monitor their volunteers and parents should keep an eye on their children and not regard coaches as baby sitters.
Eleanor Warmack, executive director of the Florida Recreation and Park Association, agrees that parents shouldn’t give too much weight to the screenings, which have become more prevalent because of the Internet.” There are 101 ways to abuse a child, and not all of them go through the criminal system,” she says.
Warmack estimates ID badges are being used by fewer than 10 percent of Florida cities, and she supports them as long as parks officials make sure that everyone wears them.
Meanwhile, she says coaches should be fingerprinted, rather than just having their information punched into a computer. State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, proposed a bill late in the session requiring all youth sports volunteers be fingerprinted. He says he’ll try to push it through when the Legislature resumes.
Meanwhile, the National Recreation and Park Association has a partnership with Michael Pfahl, whose program, Operation TLC Squared, prefers running a person’s Social Security number through databases of criminal records.
He argues that not only is a database check cheaper — usually about $20, compared with about $40 for fingerprinting — but it also has a faster turnaround time.
The company, which runs volunteers’ information through databases, has conducted 3,287 background checks this year, and about 7 percent of the checks (225) disqualified a candidate, Pfahl said. But only two checks yielded volunteers with sex offenses.
Just the threat of the check itself, and being found out, is a great deterrent, says Gladys Pentilla, a Fort Lauderdale recreation program coordinator. Of the 653 sports volunteers Fort Lauderdale has fingerprinted this year, only 34 have been rejected, she says.
Badges have been in place for 10 years in the American Youth Football League, based at 15 parks in South Florida, AYFL President Laney Stearns says. But the badges were as much for decorum — a team is allowed only six coaches on the field — as for screening, he says.
Mitch Grant, a baseball coach at Driftwood Park in Hollywood, says he has no problem with the ID badges, but he doesn’t like that several coaches who had been around for years were disqualified when the city took over screening from Driftwood Youth Sports, he says.
And children are as apt to be abused in off-the-field situations, such as a team party at a parent’s house, he says.
“Actually, I think for the city it’s all about liability,” Grant says. “They don’t want to get sued.”
Background checks have become a standard in the recreation field, says Ian McGregor a risk management consultant in Blaine, Wash., who specializes in parks and recreation.
They go with parks’ other recent additions, such as lightning prediction devices, which warn park patrons to clear the field before the first bolt is in sight, and defibrillators, in case someone has heart trouble.
“If nine out of 10 cities are doing something and you’re not, then you should take a look at doing it,” he says. But the overall approach should be toward participant safety, he says, not avoiding lawsuits.
McGregor called the ID badge trend “interesting” but overall wouldn’t necessarily provide a city with more legal protection: At this point there is no industry standard established as to how cities will enforce the program.
“To me, the bigger issue is, ‘Are you doing the checks?’” he says. “Whether you wear a badge or not isn’t a big deal.”