New principal, new entrance mark first day of class in Dist. 211

Senior Fernando Anzola thinks forcing students to wear ID badges at school smacks of conformity.

"Why don't they just brand us?" said Anzola on Wednesday, amid a sea of fellow Hoffman Estates High School students all with their new ID badges hanging around their necks.

Wednesday kicked off the 2008-09 school year, marking the first day students at all five District 211 schools were required to wear lanyards with their laminated ID cards visible. The cards have the student's name and their abbreviated schedule, so a teacher or staffer can see at a glance if a student is legitimately passing through a hall or cutting class.

Previously, students were required merely to have the ID cards on them at all times.

Predictably, some students have gone online to rail against the policy, creating a Facebook group that by Wednesday afternoon had 493 members.

Not everybody thinks it's a big deal.

"I kind of forgot I had it on," Hoffman Estates junior Patrick Kelly said.

Hoffman Estates Assistant Principal Tom Newton said staff members at his school proposed the visible ID badges districtwide to increase everybody's safety.

He said they were motivated by an incident last year when a former student walked into the school undeterred and caused an incident in the cafeteria. District 211 schools have checkpoints at each entrance with staff who ask visitors for identification, but this former student blended in with the other kids and got past.

Students also have to wear school-issued lanyards, which seemed to be the one point that bothered Kelly.

"I thought a Cubs lanyard would be cool," Kelly said.

The district prohibits students from defacing the cards, as Anzola learned. His badge was only five hours old when someone decorated his photo with long curly hair and a handlebar mustache.

Newton politely confiscated the badge.

"I guess you'll have to get a new ID," he told Anzola.

It's not a big problem if students occasionally forget their badges, as temporary cards can be issued. However, if a student habitually forgets or chooses not to wear one, they could face social probation or lose their parking permit, Newton said. Badge replacements cost $3.

Some students were also yanking their classmates' badges off their neck on Wednesday. The lanyards break off to prevent choking.

The badges aren't the only thing new in District 211 this school year.

At Fremd High School, new Principal Lisa Small greeted students on her first day on the job.

At Schaumburg High School, construction crews are preparing to install artificial turf on the stadium's playing field.

And Conant High School in Hoffman Estates debuted its 15 new science labs.

"People are really excited in the community," Conant Assistant Principal Jerry Trevino said.

Back at Hoffman Estates, students walked through the school's new sunlit entrance. It marked another phase finished for District 211's ongoing building improvement project. Construction began in 2006 for the more than $53 million in projects, all of which are slated to be finished next year.

District 211 is the largest high school district in the state, with more than 12,800 students.