In an attempt to cut down on the number of students not wearing badges, newly appointed Dean Pate Thomas is helping officially enforce the dress code policy for IDs.

“The amount of one-day IDs being distributed was excessive,” Thomas said. “Although the ID policy has not been in place for a long time, I hope [the number of students] forgetting IDs decreases. Since implementing the tardy policy, [tardies] have decreased by about 200%, so similar [results] should be [expected].”

The consequence for students forgetting or choosing to not wear their ID badges continues to be recognized as a dress code infraction. Clark County has written behavior guidelines, detailing the progressive process for each infraction. 

“I believe anything that holds students, admin and teachers accountable for themselves is a good idea,” US History teacher Jessica Kelly said. “I have noticed a decrease in tardies, so after seeing [that succeed], I expect for similar results from the dress code violations. For students to change, the rules have to actually be enforced, therefore these policies are the first steps to change.”

Next year, the district plans to create official guidelines for IDs, which may change the punishments for students who do not wear their badges.

“Our current policy, dress coding students, [prepares them] for the policies being placed next year,” Assistant Principal Donna Besser said. “As of right now, we are being more lenient with IDs since we make the decisions. However, this is to help students prepare for the district policy in the future.”

For each temporary ID that must be issued, students will continue to be charged $1. If students are unable to pay, a fine will be charged to their account and it will have to be paid off by the end of the school year.

“I wish the dress code violations would have be placed in the beginning of the year, because when I forget my ID they’d always say I’m going to get detention if I did it again, but nothing ever happened,” junior Keegan Hall said. “It would’ve made more sense to actually go through the punishments early, so we were used to it by now.”