FZINE: a place for high school students and teachers to read, interact, and contrbute. LAUNCH
Students taking classes in the Columbus Drive building will notice a significant change this semester as that pesky barcode on the back of the ARTICard now finds its place in the school. An all-school email from Arthur Jackson, Associate Director of Protection Services, announced that “effective Thursday, August 10, all persons entering the Columbus Building of the School will need to scan their ID card at the main entrance to enter the building.” The email explained the new procedure as a method of “improv[ing] security for all building occupants.” Given the fences and extra staff required to secure the building in the wake of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Taste of Chicago and Lollapalooza, to name a few, this appears a potentially far more effective method of ensuring that those in the Columbus Drive Building are supposed to be there (and not just using us for our bathrooms). Upon scanning one’s ID under the reader, the security desk computer calls up the student ID number, information and photograph, providing a clearer method for security to check that the person entering the building is the person whose card has been presented. The first couple of days saw a certain degree of confusion, and it can be safely assumed that this will continue into the first week of the semester. Many students (none of whom apparently read the email) walked by the small grocery-store type bar-code reader and waved their card at the security desk in the same blasé manner as they have for the entirety of their school career, only to find themselves called back to have the new procedure explained to them. It’s at this point one begins to appreciate the patience of the security staff at the School. Although there is much to be said for the security enhancements this will create, it does give the feel of being in a self-checkout line at a gracery store. If your barcode is scratched, bent or otherwise contorted, you'll be standing there swiping your card for quite some time. An irritation that will then be passed on to the student(s) waiting (im)patiently behind.
Prepare to wait in line.
fnews September 2006
